Abstract
At the time of the first World Congress of ISFO a “workshop” was held in Les Diablerets, Switzerland, to attempt to identify needs and establish priorities of action in prosthetics and orthotics throughout the world (ISFO, 1975). In response to questionnaires sent out six months prior to this event, 33 countries, representing nearly half of the world population, provided information on patient population, facilities, professional staff, etc. While there were gaps in the information obtained and although many of the statistics provided were clearly suspect, it was possible to get an impression of the extent of the problem. In the disability types considered, the number of physically handicapped was reported as being over 14,000,000 in a total population of about 1,200,000,000. This suggests that about one person in 100 might require some type of appliance. It appeared that only 1,800,000 have been provided with devices, leaving over 12,000,000 handicapped individuals for whom no appliance had been made. It was estimated that about 11 prosthetists, orthotists and technicians were needed to care for 1,000 patients. Thus, to provide service for the 12,000,000 handicapped presently uncatered for would require the training of 132,000 persons.