The Knud Jansen Lecture. Education: an investment in everyone's future.

Opening remarks Frequently one starts a presentation with the expression, "It is a great honour to be here," and thinks of it as little more than a polite form of words. This is not the case for me today. I am very conscious of the honour of giving this lecture and the honour we do to our founding President Knud Jansen. I am grateful to the Executive Board for their support and to the President for selecting me. I never fail to be surprised when I find myself in a gathering such as this. It is at first sight a far cry from engineering in the Clyde shipyards, where I started my career, to rehabilitation engineering and the field of prosthetics and orthotics. Perhaps this is only a reflection of the changing face of society and the increasing recognition of the contribution which engineering can make in this field. Perhaps also it is a manifestation of happenstance and the vagaries of human behaviour. More likely it is a result of the influence and attraction of those who guided and directed me; engineers such as Kenedi, Radcliffe and Foort, medical practitioners such as Murdoch and Jansen and prosthetists like Lyquist and Kragstrup. I am grateful to them for moving me in this direction and to this Society to which they all belong or belonged. Introduction It is not surprising that ISPO and its forerunner ICPO, the International Committee for Prosthetics and Orthotics have expended, and continue to expend, more effort in the field of prosthetic/orthotic education than in any other area. The fact is that twenty odd years ago just before ISPO was formed there were no universally accepted standards or even guidelines for the education and training of the prosthetist/orthotist. There were few nations with organised programmes and fewer still with any great interest in developing them. And yet the prosthetist/orthotist enjoys a central position in the treatment of the group of patients with musculoskeletal disabilities. If the clinic team is to function effectively this key figure has to be adequately educated and trained. If the situation was bad twenty years ago in the industrial world, it was worse in the developing world. Most international agencies displayed little appreciation of the need. Some would say that third world countries could not afford prosthetic/orthotic services and must concentrate on primary health care. Many who did believe prosthetic/orthotic services were necessary thought they could be provided by relatively unskilled workers. ISPO has made enormous progress in moving thinking forward. Things are beginning to happen. It is astonishing, however, that even yet in the last decade of the twentieth century All correspondence to be addressed to Professor John Hughes, Director, National Centre for Training and Education in Prosthetics and Orthotics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland.