Hand surgery training in Finland

Abstract

Interest in hand surgery in Finland began in the 1950s, when a few orthopaedic surgeons, dissatisfied with the current results of hand injury treatment, began to familiarize themselves with modern treatments by visiting pioneers of hand surgery in Europe and the United States (US). Hand surgery training in Finland then started in the early 1970s with the establishment of the Finnish Society for Surgery of the Hand (FSSH). All five founding members were specialists in orthopaedics and traumatology, including later International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH) Pioneers of Hand Surgery, Kauko Solonen, Henry Brummer, Martti Vastamäki and Simo Vilkki. The training was practical, unstructured and did not lead to any official qualification. However, the FSSH strongly advocated establishing an official hand surgery specialization, like in Sweden and the US. The National Board of Medicine was supportive, but the proposal met strong resistance from other specializations, as it was seen ‘an unnecessary addition’ to the field of surgery.