How to Add Custom Orthotics to Your Clinic: A Practical Guide for Canadian Practitioners

For clinic owners and practitioners in Canada. This is educational content, not legal or clinical advice. Last reviewed October 2, 2026.

Many physiotherapy, chiropractic, kinesiology and multidisciplinary clinics already see patients whose care plans could include custom foot orthotics. What usually holds clinics back is the operational side: who is allowed to do what, how to get a usable foot model to a lab, and how to keep turnaround predictable. This guide walks through those decisions in order. When you're ready to compare labs, our custom orthotics lab for clinics across Canada page shows how one lab-plus-app workflow handles the ordering side.

1. Check scope of practice first

Your regulator's rules decide what each practitioner may do clinically: assess, prescribe, cast or capture, and dispense. These rules differ by profession and by province, so confirm them with your college before you design the service.

What to do: list the professions on your team, then check each one against its college's guidance. If someone in the pathway can't do a step (for example, prescribing), decide before launch who does, such as another practitioner on your team or a referral relationship with a practitioner who can.

2. Map the care pathway before you buy anything

Write the pathway on one page. A typical sequence:

1. Identify patients who may benefit, using the clinical criteria your team agrees on.
2. Assess: history, footwear, activity and a biomechanical or gait assessment.
3. Capture the foot shape (digital capture, foam or plaster).
4. Order from the lab with complete assessment details and the chosen device type.
5. Fit the device in person.
6. Follow up and adjust.

Fitting and follow-up deserve real appointment time. For example, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC's custom orthotics guideline for its licensees expects orthotics to be dispensed by the licensee and a follow-up appointment to be offered within a reasonable period after dispensing. Whatever your profession, check your own college's expectations and plan time for both.

3. Decide how you'll capture the foot

The capture method affects your supplies, room set-up and staff time.

On outcomes, a 2025 double-blinded randomised controlled trial in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders (doi:10.1186/s12891-025-08513-2) compared CAD/CAM insoles made from foam-box casts with insoles made from direct foot scans. Both groups improved similarly in pain and function. Participant satisfaction and adherence were higher in the direct-scan group, and the foam-box pathway cost more overall once staff time, materials and transport were counted. (The trial used direct foot scanning; it didn't test any particular app.)

With Orthix, clinics capture both soles with a compatible phone or iPad through the Orthix app, so no dedicated scanner is required. The app generates a 3D model, and you can review it with the patient before you submit. Foam impressions are also accepted if you prefer them.

4. Choose a lab partner

You don't need your own fabrication lab to offer custom orthotics. Many clinics work with an external lab, while the clinician stays responsible for the assessment, the prescription details, the fitting and the follow-up.

We've written a separate guide on how Canadian clinics evaluate a custom orthotics lab, so here is just the short list of questions to ask any lab:

• How do we place orders, and which capture methods do you accept?
• What starts your turnaround clock, and what's typical?
• How do you tell us when something in an order is missing?
• How do we track orders and reorder for an existing patient?
• Do you ship to our province, and what does shipping cost?
• Are you a member of a professional lab association?

For reference, Orthix's answers: orders go through the Orthix app, with phone or iPad capture (foam impressions are also accepted); typical fabrication is 5–10 days after lab acceptance, and volume and product type can vary; order status, notes and files live in one clinic workspace, with reorders from the patient's digital record; orthotics ship to clinics across Canada, with shipping fees set out in our Terms; and Orthix is a member of the Prescription Foot Orthotic Laboratory Association (PFOLA).

5. Set up your records from day one

Decide what goes in the patient record before the first order, so every practitioner documents the same way. A simple template usually covers the assessment findings, the prescription details and device type, the capture method and date, the lab order, and the fitting and follow-up notes. Your college may set specific record-keeping requirements, so check them and build them into the template.

6. Train the team and run a pilot

Treat the launch as a pilot rather than a big switch. A 90-day pilot gives you enough real orders to see where the pathway works and where it stalls, before you expand.

A practical pilot plan:

• Weeks 1–2: one or two practitioners and one front-desk lead. Agree on patient criteria and the record template.
• Weeks 3–8: place real orders. Log the order date, acceptance date, delivery date, fitting date and any adjustments.
• Weeks 9–12: review the log. Fix the steps that caused delays (incomplete captures and missing prescription details are common ones), then decide whether to roll out to the rest of the team.

Orthix onboarding: most teams are comfortable placing their first digital order within one guided session, and the Orthix team can review your first few orders with you.

7. Pricing and patient communication

Set your fees before launch and explain them to patients before they commit. The CPSBC guideline expects its licensees to set fees that are "reasonable and commensurate with the service provided" and to communicate the cost to patients in advance. That's good practice for any profession.

For timelines, give patients the full journey rather than just the lab's fabrication window: assessment, capture, lab acceptance, fabrication, delivery to the clinic, then the fitting appointment.

8. Is there demand for custom orthotics in Canada?

We can't give search volumes, but Google Trends offers a useful directional signal. On Trends' 0–100 relative-interest scale for Canada, searches for "custom orthotics" averaged 38 between October 2021 and September 2022 and 63 between October 2025 and September 2026 (Google Trends, accessed October 2, 2026). Interest is usually lowest in December and January and higher from March through August. Many patients will start by asking a practitioner they already see.

How Orthix fits

Orthix is a Canadian custom orthotics laboratory and online ordering app that works only with clinics and practitioners, never directly with patients. Clinics register once, complete the online assessment, capture both soles on a phone or iPad, review the 3D model, submit the order and track it online. Orthotics are fabricated in our Vancouver lab at 101A-8380 St. George St and shipped to your clinic, wherever you are in Canada. See how the lab and app work together.

Ready to add custom orthotics? Register your clinic or book a demo. Prefer to talk? Call +1 (604) 447-2880 or email info@orthix.ca.