Tag Archives: medical
Vice President Joe Biden Shares the Vision for 3D Printing
In the commencent address at Cypress Bay High School in Florida, Vice President Joe Biden inspired the students with a vision of the future where hunger was ended and traumatic injuries could be healed by regenerating tissue and body limbs.
Imagine a day, when in your, doctors are able to regenerate entire body parts and limbs that have been damaged and lost, not only saving tens of thousands of lives, but restoring the thousands of our Iraq and Afghan veterans coming back in need of prostheses, so they will be able to live a full and ambulatory life.
As an aside, in the future, just one example, using 3D printers, we’re going to be able to restore tissue after traumatic injury or burn; restore it back to its original state. It’s literally around the corner.
Imagine a world in which hunger is vanquished by crops that don’t depend on the soil, water or fertilizer, or pesticides to thrive; they’re just around the corner.
He encouraged the graduating high school students to think big.
“You are going to lead those changes as you leave this school, so don’t sell yourself short,” Biden said. “Don’t think small. Don’t give into cynicism, don’t give into the negativity that pervades our public discourse. And imagine.”
Via 3dprinter.net and Miami Herald.
3D Printing Will Empower Most Innovative Decade in History – Forbes
Forbes contributor Vivek Wadhwa explains why he believes this will be the most innovative decade in history. Wadhwa is Vice President of Academics and Innovation at Singularity University. Here is his general view:
Why am I so optimistic? Because of the wide assortment of technologies that are advancing at exponential rates and converging. They are enabling small teams to do what was once only possible for governments and large corporations. These exponential technologies will help us solve many of humanity’s grand challenges, including energy, education, water, food, and health.
Among the technologies he cites as game changing this decade, 3D printing has a main feature:
In an emerging field called digital manufacturing, 3D printers enable the production of physical mechanical devices, medical implants, jewelry, and even clothing. These printers use something like a toothpaste tube of plastic or other material held vertically in an X-Y plotter that squirts out thin layers of tiny dots of material that build up, layer by layer, to produce a 3D replica of the computer-generated design. The cheapest 3D printers, which print rudimentary objects, currently sell for between $500 and $1000. Soon, we will have printers for this price that can print toys and household goods. Within this decade, we will see 3D printers doing the small-scale production of previously labor-intensive crafts and goods. In the next decade, we can expect local manufacture of the majority of goods; 3D printing of buildings and electronics; and the rise of a creative class empowered by digital making.
Other technologies Wadhwa mentions include genome sequencing, nanotechnology, micro-electrical-mechanical systems, and artificial intelligence.
Read the full post at Forbes.
Vivek Wadhwa photo by BAIA used under Creative Commons license.
Shape Up Medical School! 3D Printing Instead of Human Cadavers
Medical School students have long used human cadavers in their training for diagnosis, treatment and surgery before they begin practicing with real patients. With improvements in 3D printing technology, realistic artificial body parts can be produced rather than relying on corpses. The U.S. military is currently evaluating this opportunity.
Such artificial body parts would “ideally not be actual biological tissues,” but instead would consist of materials that could physically simulate the feel of flesh and bone. Success in printing out entire body part sections containing bone, muscle, skin and blood vessels could lead to lower medical training costs and cut back on the need for animal or human cadavers.
“If such technology were possible, a wide variety of human anatomy sections could be printed on demand,” according to a U.S. Defense Health Program solicitation for small business issued on May 11.
The 3D printed artificial body parts would also ideally allow for normal CT or MRI medical scans, so that physicians could practice interpreting the scan images before diving in with scalpels. The U.S. military effort could also presumably benefit American physicians and medical schools back on the home front.
Via LiveScience.
Medical School photo by uonottingham used under Creative Commons license.
Nano-Vaccines: 3D Printing Small to Fight Large-Scale Epidemics
Vaccines are a controversial topic today, but there is no doubt they have had a major impact on society by eradicating major diseases in the past. Scientists are continuing to research ways to make vaccines more effective.
North Carolina-based Liquidia Technologies is innovating on the manufacturing of vaccines. By utilizing 3D printing and nano-technology, Liquidia believes they can mass-produce more effective vaccines at a lower cost.
Applying nanoparticle fabrication techniques to vaccine production could dramatically cut their cost per dose. Joseph DeSimone and his spin out Liquidia, presented their nano-production process for vaccines at the American Chemical Society annual meeting in San Diego, US, and hope that their work will improve immunisation rates in the developing world.
DeSimone has done a lot of work on the mass production of nanoparticles using nanolithography – materials are moulded and then transferred to films in a streamlined, reel to reel, process. ‘We say we’re harnessing the power of the precision and uniformity of the microelectronics industry for making vaccines and medicines,’ he explains. And because this is a dry moulding technology, with no concerns about partitioning, DeSimone adds, ‘you can access compositions you couldn’t access before’.
Via RSC.
‘We say we’re harnessing the power of the precision and uniformity of the microelectronics industry for making vaccines and medicines,’ DiSimone explains.
Liquidia now has one vaccine in Phase I clinical trials and several others in development.
The video below provides an overview of Liquidia’s PRINT platform.
Vaccines research lab photo by Novartis AG used under Creative Commons License.
3D Printed Legs: Giving Amputees the Power of Personal Expression
The mission at San Francisco-based Bespoke Innovations is to bring more humanity to people who have experienced the loss of a limb, simply stated on their website as: “Because Every Body is Different.”
Founded in 2009 by an Industrial Designer and an Orthopedic Surgeon, Bespoke is part of the movement towards individualized and innovative medicine. Again, from their website:
Each of our bodies is unique, as are our tastes and styles. Humans are anything but one-size-fits-all, and we want to recognize that fact. We achieve this by creating products that allow our clients to personalize their prosthetic legs. Our hope is to enable our clients to emotionally connect with their prosthetic limbs, and wear them confidently as a form of personal expression. Our products turn something ordinary into something amazing.
Deborah
Bespoke shares a case study of a woman named Deborah:
In 2004, Deborah lost her lower leg in a motorcycle accident, changing her life from that moment forward. Initially, Deborah was fitted with a standard prosthetic limb in order to regain some of the basic functionality from her life before. Later, she purchased a ‘running leg’ and resumed competitive running through the Challenged Athletes Foundation. She now swims regularly, runs in marathons and is currently training for her first triathlon.
Although the prosthetic limb returned much of the mobility and activity to her life, the titanium hardware and mechanical fittings comprising the new leg simply could not represent her individuality or uniqueness. In 2010, Deborah met with Bespoke Innovations, who presented her with the opportunity to have a custom ‘Fairing’ made. The Fairing, a product that results from a process developed by Bespoke, recreates Deborah’s unique body shape, while allowing her to express her personal style and fashion sense.
How it Works
Bespoke Fairings™ are custom coverings for an existing prosthetic leg, precisely designed to fit the body through 3D scanning technology, and 3D printed to express personality and individuality never before possible. Fairings typically sell for under $5,000.
The video below shows the 3D printing process.
Bespoke has been featured in Bloomberg BusinessWeek and other major publications.
Below is video from Mashable discussing the design and customization process.
