The role of the Committee on Prosthetics Research and Development and the Committee on Prosthetic-Orthotic Education.

Early in 1945, at the request of the Surgeon General of the Army, the National Research Council sponsored a conference of surgeons, engineers, physicists, and prosthetists to consider the feasibility of effecting improvements in artificial limbs . Conclusions that emerged from the conference were that virtually no organized research of significance had been conducted in the field of limb prosthetics, and that application of technology already in existence should produce improved devices.