BOSTON – Thomas Guth, CP, received the Legislative Advocacy Award at the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association National Assembly here. Thomas DiBello, CO, LO, FAAOP, American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association president presented Guth with the award for his lifetime achievements in advocacy for the O&P profession.
Thomas Guth
“With nearly 40 years of service to orthotic and prosthetic patients and their cause, his most recent high profile contribution was as the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Orthotics and Prosthetics (NAAOP),” DiBello said. “His tenure occurred when the legislative and regulatory challenges to orthotics and prosthetics were more perilous than ever. He was a founding member of NAAOP in 1987 and in 2009 became a founding director of the Center for Orthotic and Prosthetic Learning.
“With this presentation of the Legislative Advocacy award plaque memorializing your contributions, also goes our heartfelt thanks and appreciation,” he told Guth.
Guth told the audience that even though the award says legislative advocacy, he would say that it is really patient advocacy.
“Those patients are our friends,” he said. “They will help protect us; they don’t want us to go out of business any more than we want to. I’m very honored by this.”