The Board of Directors and J. Lynn Thorneburg, President of the Institute for Preventive Foot Health based in Statesville, North Carolina announces the appointment of Robert P. (Bob) Thompson who will serve as the Institute's first Executive Director. Thompson is a nationally Board certified pedorthist (C.Ped.) and is credentialed by the American Board for Certification in Orthotics, Prosthetics and Pedorthics (ABC) and by the Board for Orthotist/Prosthetist Certification (BOC). He is also a licensed pedorthist (L.Ped.) in his home state of Alabama.

For five years prior to his appointment with the Institute, Thompson owned and operated a full-service foot health care pedorthics business in Birmingham, Alabama where he specialized in designing customized solutions for his patients' foot health concerns. Each patient-specific "integrated solution" consisted of 1.) the selection and use of an activity-specific, engineered, padded sock to reduce the pressures and shearing forces that affect the foot; 2.) the design of left-foot and right-foot individually-specific, custom orthoses - or the use of prefabricated commercial footwear inserts - if they were needed to promote balance, stability and a more appropriate alignment of the foot, ankle, knee and lower back; and 3.) the correct and proper fitting of biomechanically superior commercial or custom designed shoes to provide a foundation for foot stability and protection. His personal ministry to and care of the diabetic foot in the greater Birmingham area was unrivaled.

Prior to his pedorthic services career, Thompson served for 2 years as the business administrator for a publicly-traded medical software development company, 17 years as the chief administrative/executive officer for three large, multispecialty medical group practices, and 8 years as the senior operations administrator at two teaching hospitals. In 2000 Thompson took a sabbatical year off to "give back." He helped build a medical clinic building for a remote population of 350 inhabitants on one of the Fiji Islands in the South Pacific as well as to help construct two houses with Habitat for Humanity closer to home in Shelby County, Alabama; he also spent several months involved with a youth program in Birmingham. In his capacity as Executive Director of the Institute, Thompson will continue his career mission, with a focus on educating the general public, by sharing his experience of life-quality improving "integrated solutions" with consumers and patients, professional and community organizations and governmental agencies, as well as the broader missions of the Institute. The Institute for Preventive Foot Health was created to promote awareness of, and the need for, preventive foot health as a cornerstone of long-term quality of human life, and also to promote research and education dedicated to preventive foot health practices, products and procedures that contribute to the general well being of the human foot.

You may contact Thompson by e-mail at bobthompson@ipfh.org or by toll-free telephone at 877-777-IPFH (877-777-4734).