
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 10, 1995                   TAG: 9508100057
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ORTHOTICS FIRM SPINS OFF PATIENT-CARE DIVISION

Virginia Orthotics & Prosthetics Inc. of Roanoke has created a new division, EXCEL Prosthetics & Orthotics, and it also plans to expand national marketing efforts.

EXCEL will be a patient care division serving a regional market that includes Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky, company owner and president Doug Walters said Wednesday.

He said the name of the new division was taken from the title of a series of seminars the company gave for physical therapists and reflects "what we expect our patients to do."

EXCEL will have offices in Danville as well as at the headquarters on Second Street Southwest. Other office sites might also be established, Walters said.

Separating patient services from national promotion and research and development made the company more efficient, so it was able to reduce its fee structure and become more competitive, he said.

Walters, a certified prosthetist and orthotist, started Virginia Orthotics in 1978. It employs nine people.

The national push should begin next month, he said.

by CNB