Our Arm Dynamics Patient Relationship Managers

Our Upper Limb Library blog articles have featured our prosthetists, clinical therapy specialists, technicians and center patient coordinators. But there’s one team that doesn’t yet have a feature article to discuss how critical they are to our patient care process. That’s our Patient Relationship Managers — PRMs for short. Each Arm Dynamics center has a PRM and their job is to collaborate with their center’s team to help provide a positive and seamless patient experience. They build relationships with physicians, surgeons, case managers and other healthcare workers. This involves a lot of travel and wearing many hats — but it’s all worth it because they are often able to see those efforts come to fruition.

Travis Stubbs, Houston, TX, PRM, pictured above, “We’re essentially giving them control of their life back, either if they’re new to limb loss, or if they’re coming to us from a different provider.”

For our PRM in Portland, OR, Ken Wagner, it’s about telling the bigger story of Arm Dynamics because he knows it can benefit people with an upper limb difference. “I like working for Arm Dynamics because I can tell the story of the team, tell the story of our successes, our challenges and how the patients have overcome them. We can help our patients create a road map to success.” Our Minneapolis, MN, PRM, Laura Moline finds that success is a rewarding part of her job: “Seeing our patients thrive after having such a life-altering injury, or seeing a patient who was born with a congenital limb difference do something that they’ve never been able to do for the first time — it’s amazing to see how our patients adapt and grow.”

When thinking about specific patients that our PRMs have been able to see adapt and grow, each has a different story. “We had a patient who played the accordion,” Laura began, “and due to his amputation, he hadn't been able to play for a long time. Our clinical team created a solution for him and he was able to play the accordion for the first time since his amputation. He was so over the moon that he had tears in his eyes. Just a small reminder of why we do what we do. It's an amazing feeling to think I had a role in connecting this patient with our clinicians so he could get the comprehensive, upper limb care he needed.”

For Ken, he talked about meeting our patient Eduardo Garcia for the first time. “I found it startling how present he was. He was focused on his care team and was really listening to what they had to say — he wasn’t distracted or looking at his phone. And I’ve found that to be true quite often with our patients — something changes when someone goes through a life-changing experience. I don’t quite know how to explain it, but they are just so present. So enlightened. You’re the only thing they’re paying attention to.”

When asked about his memorable patients, Travis starts with Doug. “He is such a super-user. A great patient — eager to wear his device and get back to his life. We’re working on getting him a second body-powered device because he uses these things so much, he’s so rough on them, that we need to make sure he has a backup.”

Another thing Travis brought up was the Skills for Life: Bilateral Upper Limb Loss Workshop, typically held every three years. “It was really cool to be there, watching people embrace their new limb loss and see people who’ve been living with limb loss show the newbies the ropes. It’s a bit of a think tank — people brainstorm solutions to issues and problems and solve them together as a community.”

Our PRMs have years of experience helping both our care teams and patients move through the prosthetic care process together. Travis’ advice for both patients and their families is: “Don’t be afraid to ask for help. And don’t assume everyone who is offering their help is an expert. Ask your surgeon how much limb loss experience they have. Talk to a prosthetist about the whole experience. You don’t have to be an expert — upper limb loss is not common, but you can find experts.”

Would you like to learn more about how our experts can help you or someone you know access our special prosthetic care? Please contact us. We offer all potential patients a complimentary consultation with our clinical team so they can learn more about what we can offer them specifically. If you work with upper limb different patients, we look forward to hearing from you so we can tell you more about what we can provide. If you have a comment on this article or for one of our PRMs, please leave it below.