JRRD At A Glance for Volume 44, Number 4, 2007

We provide a summary of professionals’ opinions on the most important factors in the successful use of an upper-limb prosthesis. This summary allows designers and researchers to ensure they are pursuing the most needed areas of improvement and allows patients and professionals to compare their opinions. Comfort, specifically socket-interface comfort, was considered most important for a unilateral amputee, whereas function, specifically agility, was considered most important for a bilateral amputee. This survey shows a moderate degree of agreement with a past survey of amputees; however, the lack of agreement between the professionals surveyed here and the prosthesis users surveyed in the past indicates that more work should be done to ascertain the opinions of prosthetics professionals and align their goals with those of the amputee population.