When David Rooney was a sophomore in high school, his dad would bring home information on a variety of careers to whet the teenager”™s appetite for some educational and career goals. “He happened to show me something on prosthetics, and it sparked my interest,” Rooney said ”“ even though he had shown no interest or particular aptitude in things mechanical. But “I liked the idea that I wasn”™t going to be behind a desk for eight hours a day, and would be able to do something creative and, hopefully, beneficial for people.”
Rooney liked the idea so much he took a chance and, after he graduated from high school in Cambridge, Mass., enrolled at New York University for what he said is “such a defined education that you can”™t do a lot of other things with it.” But what you can do with it is profoundly life changing: Creating artificial limbs for amputees, making orthopedic appliances to help prevent deformities from progressing or to improve mobility.
“We see kids from 2 or 3 months of age who might need something for congenitally dislocated hips on through adulthood, who may have had a stroke or a head injury,” he said. “The prosthetic population is primarily geriatric diabetics or those who have some vascular involvement that requires that their leg be amputated.”
In short, Rooney”™s prosthetics (artificial limbs) and orthotics (external braces that support or improve function) fulfilled his early idea of a career that”™s both creative and beneficial. “I consider myself lucky that I like the field so much,” he said.
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Teaching hospital
After Rooney graduated from NYU in 1985 with a bachelor”™s degree in prosthetics and orthotics, he began a yearlong residency in each discipline at the Newington Children”™s Hospital. “I wanted to do both,” he said of the separate disciplines “I wanted to make sure I would see a variety of patients who would require our services.”
He was certified in both disciplines and stayed on at Newington for eight years before leaving to start his own business in Trumbull. The children”™s hospital, he said, “is a great place to see a variety of patients that I may not get exposure to in a private practice.” The teaching hospital offered him a diversity of diagnosis, and while he dealt mainly with pediatric patients, “the mechanical principles remain the same for adults,” he said. “There are some complications with pediatric patients that need to be addressed specifically with families,” he said. “You have to make sure you”™re involving the families, that they”™re on board with what you”™re doing.”
Most of Rooney”™s pediatric patients require orthotic services rather than prosthetics to help deal with the ravages of cerebral palsy ”“ “the most common diagnosis we see for the pediatric population.” That requires custom bracing beginning with casting a mold of the patient”™s extremities and creating bracing that gives support, comfort and function, he said. “We don”™t do much with walkers, although we”™re considering getting involved with them. We see a lot of special-needs kids” who could become more mobile in custom-designed walkers.
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Private practice
After eight years at Newington, Rooney and a business partner he has since bought out struck out on their own to build a private practice, which they called BioMetrics. “What we did was basically stumble our way through the first year or two,” he said. “Looking back, we were more lucky than anything. We knew the clinical practice side, but knew very little about the business management side. We had to learn as we went along ”“ not the way I recommend doing it.”
At the time they started their venture, Rooney was running Newington”™s Norwalk office and was living in Trumbull. “We had a lot of referrals from the Trumbull and Bridgeport area, and that”™s why I decided to open here,” he said of BioMetrics”™ Trumbull operations. “We ended up getting office space and hired a temporary who we later hired full time to help us with the billing and collection side.”
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Today BioMetrics has 10 employees and two additional locations ”“ Waterbury, with a full-time practitioner who also travels to the Torrington satellite office a few times a week. “We were approached by a group of practitioners who were working with Newington” when a chain purchased the hospital. “They called us and said they didn”™t want to stay and asked if they could work for us,” Rooney said.
The Trumbull location is also BioMetrics”™ manufacturing site, where Rooney evaluates patients sent to the practice by physicians. “I”™m responsible for coming up with a design that is appropriate for the patients,” relying on a physician”™s prescription to start the process. “We cannot provide anything without a physician”™s input,” he said. When creating prosthetics or orthotics from a prescription, “we put down in writing our recommendations and then run that by the physician for review, editing and approval.”
Rooney said his practice sees more orthotic than prosthetic patients, even though the public sees more publicity about prosthetics, especially with military personnel being fit with artificial limbs during wartime.
“We see 10 to 15 times as many orthotic patients, just because of the number of diagnosis from injuries or congenital issues or stroke or head injuries,” Rooney said. “The largest need we see is lower-extremity bracing for kids,” he said. “A lot of kids have brain-related disorders like cerebral palsy and strokes, and cannot control their muscle tone and have muscle imbalance. We need to tend to all these things.”
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Staying small
BioMetrics is one of a handful of small practices in Fairfield County. “The field is becoming much more advanced with computers,” Rooney said ”“ both for acquiring better data on a patient with laser scanners and digital cameras, and with computer-aided appliances. And the potential number of patients is growing. “We”™re a very small field compared with physical therapy, and the challenge for us is to meet the needs of the people down the road,” he said. “Our nation is faced with obesity challenges and, with that, diabetes. We”™re living longer, but not better.”
As for BioMetrics, “I think we just need to stay small,” Rooney said. “That”™s important to me because it”™s easier to control and be very focused on service. The products we buy are identical to those bought by large companies. The technology is available to anyone out there. It”™s how you use it that”™s a factor in where people choose to get their prosthetics.”
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