About Us
I am very proud to welcome you to the website of the Roth | McFarlane Hand & Upper Limb Centre (RM-HULC). On September 27, 2013, in honour of the founders of our Unit, the Hand & Upper Limb Centre was renamed to the Roth | McFarlane Hand & Upper Limb Centre. The Roth | McFarlane Centre is a combined Orthopaedic and Plastic Surgery unit specializing in the care of patients with disorders of the upper limb. It was founded at St. Joseph's Health Care London in 1992 by the late Drs. James Roth and Robert McFarlane, visionary surgeons who believed that working together they could create a true centre of excellence in upper limb care. For a more detailed description of the accomplishments of these two surgeons, I would refer you to their personal web pages which can be found by clicking on their names. In addition, you can view the video "Two Visionaires: Hand & Upper Limb Centre", whichs highlights some of the aspects of our Centre.
In the years since our inception, we have added surgeons, scientists, therapists, nurses, cast technicians, secretaries and others to become the largest upper extremity surgical unit in Canada. The twelve surgeons at the Roth | McFarlane Centre see approximately 43,000 patients per year and perform approximately 4,500 major procedures per year in state of the art operating rooms and clinic space. Patients with all disorders of the shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand are seen, including those due to congenital anomalies, trauma, arthritis and tumors. Children are seen in the Roth | McFarlane clinics but have their operations performed by our surgeons at the Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario. Our surgeons do combined clinics with several rehabilitation physicians and have excellent professional relationships with the rheumatologists in London.
The research programs at the Roth | McFarlane Centre are well-established and world-renowned. The Roth | McFarlane Centre includes a bioengineering lab, a mechatronics lab, a cell and molecular biology lab and a clinical research lab. Each lab has a full time PhD scientist and additional research staff. Our labs are funded by multiple agencies including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council. In addition, staff and patients regularly contribute to our research funds.
All our surgeons and scientists have academic appointments in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University. The Roth | McFarlane team is dedicated to teaching health care professionals and is a pinnacle program in the Department of Surgery at Western University. We have a well-established fellowship program, are very active in resident teaching and also participate in the education of medical students, hand therapists, undergraduate and graduate science students, and others. The Robert M. McFarlane Library is an excellent resource for all students and staff. Surgical Skills including advanced arthroscopy and microsurgery are taught in the Roth | McFarlane Surgical Skills Laboratory.
I hope you enjoy our website and are able to find the information you are looking for.
Dr. Graham King, MD MSc FRCSC
Director, Roth | McFarlane Hand & Upper Limb Centre
St. Joseph's Health Care London
London, Ontario, Canada
