The objectives of the upper-extremity prosthetics program.

1 Professor of Engineering and Biophysics, University of California, Los Angeles; member, Advisory Committee on Artificial Limbs, National Research Council; chairman, Upper-Extremity Technical Committee, ACAL, NRC. 2 Strong, F. S., Jr., The Artificial Limb Program: Five Years of Progress. Advisory Committee on Artificial Limbs, NRC, Washington, November 1951. 3 Bronk, D. W., President, National Academy of Sciences. Address to the Advisory Committee on Artificial Limbs, Annual Meeting, Washington, May 1953. JL HE upper-extremity prosthetics program, under the sponsorship of the Advisory Committee on Artificial Limbs, National Research Council, has been a growing and evolving program from its inception in 1945. Its initial objectives were limited to time and motion study of amputees and to device invention and development. But from the vantage point of 1954 we may list many additional objectives that have been assumed according to the necessities of a national program dedicated to the welfare of the amputee. As new activities have been added, none of the original have been abandoned, although certain of the original ones have been reduced in relative emphasis and expenditure. Figure 1 illustrates in schematic form the major phases of the upper-extremity program as they have waxed and waned over the years from 1946 to 1953. The scope and magnitude of these activities represent a program with few parallels in our peacetime economy. As is evident in Figure 1, not all the activities were started (or even conceived) at the outset. But, as has been pointed out by Strong, no one could predict at the outset the ramifications of a program dedicated to the tangible goal of putting new and improved prostheses on amputees. The appropriateness of this program under the auspices of the National Research Council was underscored by President Bronk, who praised the ACAL program as a fitting example of the service to the public welfare for which N R C was founded.