Fonds includes the following series: Personal, n.d, 1973-1995; Articles, lectures and talks, n.d., 1951-1988; Medical Electronics, n.d., 1949-1989; International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering, 1959-1973; Subject files, n.d., 1951-1995; Additional material, n.d., 1949-1995; and, Photographs, n.d., 1977-1994.
Included is Hopps' correspondence, reports and files from the Medical Electronics Section of the National Research Council on cardiac pacemakers, defibrillators and electrical hazards in hospitals, 1949-73; files relating to Hopps' work as a consultant in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), 1957-58, and the International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering, 1970-73; articles and speeches by Hopps; as well as photographs of equipment devised by Hopps in the hospital environment, his experiments, and measurements undertaken with patients, [ca. 1955-1970].
Hopps, John Alexander, 1919-1998 : John A. Hopps was raised and educated in Winnipeg. After graduating in electrical engineering from the University of Manitoba in 1941, he joined the National Research Council (NRC) in Ottawa to work on wartime radar development. After working on a variety of electrical and radio projects, he was assigned in 1949 to Dr. W.G. Bigelow's hypothermia project at the University of Toronto's Banting Institute. The project led to the development of the cardiac pacemaker stimulator, 1950 and the first Canadian heart defibrillator, as well as other biomedical devices.
In 1957-1958, Hopps took a leave of absence from NRC to be a Columbo Plan consultant in Sri Lanka where he helped set up an Electromedical Division for the government health service. Returning to NRC, he helped design the first integrated electronic operating room in Canada and an intensive care ward monitoring system. Much of his time was devoted to hospital safety problems and standards. Hopps was the chairman of the Canadian Standards Association's Committee on Patient Care Safety and other related committees.
In 1973 Hopps became the head of NRC's Medical Engineering Section and continued work on cardiovascular research, ultrasound, new monitoring equipment and aids for the handicapped until his retirement in 1979. Hopps was the first president of the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society, 1965 and president of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering, 1971. He was also the Secretary General of the latter organization, 1976-1985.
In 1995 Hopps published his autobiography "Passing Pulses - The Pacemaker and Medical Engineering: A Canadian Story". John A. Hopps died on 24 November 1998.
