Abstract
In 1963, in the face of public outcry, the Canadian govenunent announced that the
"Thalidomide Problem" would be "solved" by an armual grant of $200 000. This sum was
to cover three new prosthetics research and training centres, in Montreal, Toronto
and Winnipeg, and prosthetics research here at UNB. There was much criticism of that
initiative, initially because the sum was too small and the objective too gr andiose,
most recently in litigation by the Thalidomide Survivors Association. But direct results
include the Rehabilitation Engineering Department of the Hugh MacMillan Rehabilitation
Centre, substantial continuing prosthetics research programs at l'Institut de Readaptation
de Montreal and at the Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg, and the UNB Institute of
Biomedical Engineering All have contributed significantly to the intz oduction of
science and technology into the craft of prosthetics, and to the development of prosthetics
systems and devices in wide clinical use. We should be alert to the possibility that
there will be other opportunities to derive substantial benefit from initiatives which
are ill-conceived or inadequate.
Citation
From "MEC 95," Proceedings of the 1995 MyoElectric Controls/Powered Prosthetics Symposium
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada: August, 1995. Copyright University of New Brunswick.
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