DATE:  

DATE:  October 16, 2007

FOR RELEASE: Immediately

CONTACT: Greg Safko, President

BOC Appoints Public Member

The Board for Orthotist/Prosthetist Certification (BOC) has named Mickey Fitzgerald, founder of Dynamic Orthotics & Prosthetics in Atlanta, GA, as a “public” member of its Board of Directors, representing the interests of the general public.

Fitzgerald, a former professional athlete on two continents, founded Clinical Support Services in 1988, as a durable medical equipment company, as well as an intraoperative neuromonitoring service that provides moment-to-moment assessment of the functioning of the nervous system during surgery. Clinical Support Services changed its name in 2006 to Dynamic Orthotics and Prosthetics. The company’s slogan is “Professional Healthcare with a Personal Touch.” Dynamic Orthotics and Prosthetics offers 24-hour on-call service to physicians, hospitals and patients, supplying orthoses, prostheses and pedorthic devices to physician offices, hospitals, rehab centers and patients’ homes.

Fitzgerald excelled in sports in high school, winning a football scholarship to Virginia Tech where he became a standout fullback. He later played for the Atlanta Falcons and the Philadelphia Eagles, before giving up football and moving into the real estate business. Real estate eventually led him to Japan, where he learned that the Japanese prefer to do business with people they know well. After watching a sumo wrestling match on television, he decided to give it a try, as a way of becoming better known in Japan.

“I wasn’t in it so much for the wrestling but to make it easier to do business,” Fitzgerald recalls. He succeeded, becoming  the first continental Amercan to sumo wrestle professionally. While living in Japan, he traveled extensively to other countries, studying other cultures and their people. Eventually he returned to the U.S. where he founded a pair of medical supply and service businesses.

He also founded Mickey’s Rascals, a non-profit foundation that assists poor children from rural aeras, providing them with activities, outings and educational assistance. He has been a volunteer leader with National Football League Alumni, established to help needy children, and served as president of the Atlanta chapter.

“I am proud to serve as a public member on BOC’s Board,” says Fitzgerald. “My company is known for quality work and exceptional customer service. We’re equally proud of our philanthropic posture, which includes what we do for children. We believe that good philanthropy is good business, and I will bring that belief to BOC’s Board. I am eager to do whatever I can to help BOC’s Board of Directors fulfill their mission and expand services to the broad patient and health care communities.”

“Mickey Fitzgerald is, quite simply, unique,” says Teresa Alpert Liebman, BOCO, C.Ped. BOC Pedorthist, who chairs BOC’s Board of Directors. “He has performed at the highest levels, won fame and built second and third careers for himself, and he has used all that cumulative experience to understand and serve others. It’s a great pleasure to be able to call on Mickey’s talents and knowledge in ways that will help BOC expand its outreach to patients and to other health care providers.”

BOC president Greg Safko says Fitzgerald’s expertise will be particularly useful in his role as the public representative on the Board. “More than most of us, Mickey has traveled in an incredible variety of cultures, meeting people of widely differing background and expectations. He brings insights to patient care that will assist the Board in decision-making, and I look forward to working with him.”

BOC’s mission is to assure patients, physicians, professional organizations and governments worldwide of certified practitioner competency and accredited facility standards. Although the mission is quite comprehensive and encompassing, it underscores a very down-to-earth goal: To help practitioners, and their employers, satisfy and exceed wellness and health care needs throughout the patient community.