We're Carl and Serena, husband and wife team.
We've got a podiatry business,
we've got a clinic in Newtown in Powys and Craven Arms in Shropshire.
I'm a podiatrist, Carl's a foot health practitioner.
We've got different backgrounds,
but we work together to try and get the best outcomes for our patients.
Generally, we see probably about 40 patients a week.
Something like that does vary.
Majority of people are elderly.
Lots of different conditions, lots of different problems.
Anything from sort of general toenail
cutting to sort of diabetic foot ulcers and everything in between.
Sports injuries, musculoskeletal problems,
verruca, ingrown toenails, infections, sort of, you name it, really.
We get all sorts.
We offer podium scanning as part of patients initial assessment.
If they want it.
It gives us a baseline, then, so that if they come in with any different
problems or any different concerns in the future,
we can scan them and compare that to the initial time that we saw them
and how their feet were looking at that time
and then other people,
if they presented with foot pain or a new complaint or something has changed,
or there's something that we're concerned about, then we'll offer them the scan
there and then to try and investigate that, assess that and
deal with that as it comes forward.
It's helping you to see their pain,
even the doctor, if the doctor looks at the email,
sees a scan, it's like, all right, yeah, I can see that.
The doctor feels more confident in what you're suggesting as well,
it's the evidence base,
it's that this is adding to the picture.
You've got that in front of you, it's measured and you can see it.
The scan is instant, but also, because of the colours on the dynamic
scan, it's very clear to the patient to see themselves.
Oh, yeah, that's a problem area.
That's not because of the red and the green.
It's very easy to understand
for the patient to sort of be engaged with it as well.
There's an element of patient compliance
and patient engagement, because if you can show them something
on a scan, when they come in and their foot is painful, they're pleased because
they can see, oh, yeah, that's where my problem is and what it's showing.
But also, then if they come back and you
scan them again and they've had an improvement through the orthotics
through your treatment plan, it's showing them their compliance,
their engagement is working, their treatment plan is working.
It's invaluable
we couldn't do without it now.
That wouldn't be without it.
No, definitely not.
I think it's definitely helped in terms
of GP referrals as well, because private
practise wise, it can be very difficult
sometimes to refer into the NHS and you don't have the same referral pathways as
sort of multidisciplinary teams within the NHS do
and it just adds a little bit of background and a little bit of
sort of evidence based backup to what
you're referring about what you're saying and what you're asking them to act on,
especially at the moment when patients are.
Struggling to access services because everything is so overloaded after COVID.
So it's showing us things that we can't see or detect as a clinician
on the outside, and that really makes a difference.
But also for people who've got a problem that they'd have a long wait time
in the NHS to see a consultant or to have an MRI, or it would be very expensive
to have a private assessment, scanned, MRI and so on.
And the podium, it's giving an instant,
non invasive, quick and relatively affordable idea
of what's happening and adding to their treatment plan.
When they've seen the scan
and they see the information, then when they come in a week later,
a month later, and they take the next scan and there's the improvement,
it makes it a lot easier for them to say, for them to understand, yes,
keep taking your medicine, keep using your orthotics, because that's what's helped.
You know, it's a visual.
It does what it says on the Tin