In Commemoration of Dr. Paul Brand

Main Hospital Building CMCH, Vellore

It is truly a great honor and pleasure to hold the first triennial Dr. Paul Brand Memorial Oration, on September 5, 2014 in Vellore, India. Dr. Brand has impacted global hand surgery in general but specifically the hand surgeons performing tendon transfer surgery.

Dr. Paul Brand was born on July 17th, 1914 to a missionary couple (Jesse and Evelyn Brand) and grew up in the Kolli Hills of Tamil Nadu, India until he went to the Great Britain in 1923 for education.

Dr. Paul Brand
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 In 1946, he joined the staff of the Christian Medical College&Hospital in Vellore, India .  In 1950, with a donation from a missionary woman, Brand established the New Life Center, Vellore, as a model rehabilitation center. This helped dispel the stigma that was so prevalent even among medical professionals. Correcting deformities to restore the self-respect of patients and to integrate them into society was his cherished goal.

In 1966 and after 19 years of service in India, he moved to the United States to take up the position of Chief of Rehabilitation Branch at the National Hansen´s Disease Center at Carville, Louisiana. He worked there for 20 years and established a research unit to study the complications of insensitive hands and feet, their prevention and management.

Dr. Paul Brand was one of the main architects of the All-Africa Leprosy Rehabilitation and Training Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia., and the Schieffelin Leprosy Research and Training Center at Karigiri, India, in Vellore district.  Dr Paul Brand spent a lifetime working with people affected by leprosy, doing his utmost to destroy the stigma of the disease, and rebuild the lives of those destroyed by it. When he retired in 1986, he moved to Seattle  and continued his teaching work as emeritus professor of Orthopaedics at the University of Washington. 

From a hand surgery and hand therapy point of view, Dr Brand was probably most known for his hand mechanics "Bible" Clinical Mechanics of the Hand. Mosby, 1985.

Selected Literature

Paul Brand and Philip Yancey (1980). Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. Zondervan.

Paul Brand and Philip Yancey  (1983). In His Image. Zondervan.

Paul W. Brand (1985). Clinical Mechanics of the Hand. Mosby. 

Paul Brand and Philip Yancey (1993). Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants. Zondervan. republished in 1997 as The Gift of Pain.

Paul Brand (1993). The Forever Feast. Vine Books.

Jan Fridén