Medical Appliance Technician Construct, maintain, or repair medical supportive devices such as braces, orthotics and prosthetic devices, joints, arch supports, and other surgical and medical appliances.
Medical Appliance Technician is Also Know as
In different settings, Medical Appliance Technician is titled as
- Certified Pedorthotist
- Hearing Aid Repair Technician
- Lab Technician
- Orthopedic Technician
- Orthotic and Prosthetic Technician (O and P Technician)
- Orthotic Technician
- Prosthetic Technician
- Prosthetics Technician
- Registered Prosthetic Orthotic Technician
Education and Training of Medical Appliance Technician
Medical Appliance Technician is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Medical Appliance Technician
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education Required for Medical Appliance Technician
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Degrees Related to Medical Appliance Technician
- Bachelor in Orthotist/Prosthetist
- Associate Degree Courses in Orthotist/Prosthetist
- Masters Degree Courses in Orthotist/Prosthetist
- Bachelor in Assistive/Augmentative Technology and Rehabilitati
- Associate Degree Courses in Assistive/Augmentative Technology and Rehabilitati
- Masters Degree Courses in Assistive/Augmentative Technology and Rehabilitati
Training Required for Medical Appliance Technician
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Medical Appliance Technician in different industries are
- Dental Laboratory Technicians
- Medical Equipment Repairers
- Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters
- Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic
- Calibration Technologists and Technicians
- Surgical Technologists
- Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers
- Medical Equipment Preparers
- Orthotists and Prosthetists
- Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers
- Shoe and Leather Workers and Repairers
- Prosthodontists
- Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric
- Electromechanical Equipment Assemblers
- Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders
- Endoscopy Technicians
- Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand
- Timing Device Assemblers and Adjusters
What Do Medical Appliance Technician do?
- Fit appliances onto patients, and make any necessary adjustments.
- Make orthotic or prosthetic devices, using materials such as thermoplastic and thermosetting materials, metal alloys and leather, and hand or power tools.
- Read prescriptions or specifications to determine the type of product or device to be fabricated and the materials and tools required.
- Repair, modify, or maintain medical supportive devices, such as artificial limbs, braces, or surgical supports, according to specifications.
- Instruct patients in use of prosthetic or orthotic devices.
- Take patients' body or limb measurements for use in device construction.
- Construct or receive casts or impressions of patients' torsos or limbs for use as cutting and fabrication patterns.
- Bend, form, and shape fabric or material to conform to prescribed contours of structural components.
- Drill and tap holes for rivets, and glue, weld, bolt, or rivet parts together to form prosthetic or orthotic devices.
- Lay out and mark dimensions of parts, using templates and precision measuring instruments.
- Test medical supportive devices for proper alignment, movement, or biomechanical stability, using meters and alignment fixtures.
- Cover or pad metal or plastic structures or devices, using coverings such as rubber, leather, felt, plastic, or fiberglass.
- Polish artificial limbs, braces, or supports, using grinding and buffing wheels.
- Service or repair machinery used in the fabrication of appliances.
- Mix pigments to match patients' skin coloring, according to formulas, and apply mixtures to orthotic or prosthetic devices.
Qualities of Good Medical Appliance Technician
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Tools Used by Medical Appliance Technician
- 3D scanning systems
- Acetylene torches
- Air compressors
- Alignment stands
- Allen wrenches
- Anvils
- Arbor presses
- Band saws
- Bead blasters
- Belt sanders
- Bench lathes
- Bench punches
- Bending brakes
- Buffing wheels
- Cast cutting saws
- Claw hammers
- Computer numerical controlled CNC milling machines
- Computerized lathes
- Cordless drills
- Cutting wheels
- Deburring tools
- Dial calipers
- Digital camcorders
- Digitizers
- Disk sanders
- Drill presses
- Drum sanders
- End cutting nippers
- Flatbed sewing machines
- Force platforms
- Glue guns
- Grinding equipment
- Grinding rasps
- Grinding wheels
- Half-round files
- Heat guns
- Hex wrenches
- High temperature laboratory box furnaces
- High temperature laboratory ovens
- High volume dust collectors
- Hot knives
- Laboratory infrared ovens
- Laboratory mechanical benchtop convection ovens
- Laboratory mechanical convection ovens
- Laptop computers
- Longarm sewing machines
- Measuring tapes
- Metal grinders
- Metal-cutting bandsaws
- Personal computers
- Pipe bending mandrels
- Pipe vises
- Pneumatic oscillating saws
- Pneumatic riveting hammers
- Power drills
- Power planers
- Power routing tools
- Prosthetic bench vises
- Protective ear muffs
- Rivet guns
- Rotary saws
- Rubber mallets
- Safety glasses
- Swaging tools
- Table saws
- Torque wrenches
- Vacuum formers
- Vacuum stations
- Vertical routers
- Welders
- Wood files
- Workshop bench vises
Technology Skills required for Medical Appliance Technician
- Autodesk AutoCAD
- Footmaxx Metascan software
- Gait analysis software
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft Word
- Ohio Willow Wood OMEGA Tracer System
- Orthotic fabrication software
- Seattle Systems Shapemaker
- SoftSource CADview
- Vorum Research Corporation CANFIT-PLUS