【3D Printing News】3D printing is driving innovative medical solutions

3D Printing is Driving Innovative Medical Solutions
 
Drs. Bon Ku and Rob Pugliese are teaching medical students to design medical devices, research spaces, and healthcare services to refresh the traditional medical school education model, becoming innovative problem-solvers and doctors.
 
Dr. Bon Ku and Dr. Rob Pugliese are professors and emergency room physicians at Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital, respectively. They have witnessed firsthand the gap in skills and knowledge levels among current medical school graduates and recognize the challenges they will face in the busy, real-world hospital environment after graduation. Ku and Pugliese were also inspired by the Maker movement (originally initiated by Jose Gomez-Marquez and his team). These two individuals pondered how to play a role in healthcare professional training by enhancing creativity, adaptability, and the dedication of doctors.
 
A Doctor and a Designer
 
Founding a design lab and implementing the JeffDESIGN program - JeffDESIGN is the first design curriculum in a medical school. Dr. Ku states: "The program aims to teach future doctors to design medical devices, spaces, and services in the healthcare field. The program actually does more than that; it teaches these aspiring doctors how to be problem solvers." The JeffDESIGN program includes hands-on courses taught by doctors, designers, architects, and engineers.
 

 
Kathryn Linder, a medical student at Jefferson, is a student in the "Design for Disability" course led by Pugliese. Linder understands that there's more to it than just theory; she and her classmates are creating a prosthetic limb for a 16-year-old lyricist.
 
Linder's team is making a limb that will allow a quadriplegic young person to write again by hand. Linder says, "When we consider solutions, it's no longer just theoretical. It's about whether its function, appearance, and color are suitable for Lariq?" (The full story is in this video).
 
Dr. Ku says, "These are problems encountered in daily life, but currently medical schools are not equipped with doctors to help them." These rapid cycles of discovery, prototyping, and testing will assist future generations of doctors and provide them with the toolkit to solve these problems.
 
Ku sees a very real problem in design: physician burnout. When everyday problems seem intractable, it's hard to hold onto any hope. But Ku believes the challenges faced in design are a catalyst for medical practitioners. He explains, "Inherent in design is an optimistic mindset: you can design a better way. It also has the potential to improve healthcare. This optimism can foster empathy; future doctors may listen to patients and design with them."
 
   
 
There is a long history of practicing physicians as inventors, making significant contributions to advancements in medical technology. However, in the past few decades, medicine has increasingly outsourced this activity to the medical technology industry. Dr. Ku and Pugliese see themselves as inventors, and JeffDESIGN enables students to propose their own solutions to medical challenges.
 
3D Printers in Medical School
 
This "design lab in a medical center" is unique. It is highly praised for encouraging innovation and design thinking among medical students. And the medical devices invented by students are gradually gaining attention. The lab is located in the vault of the Second Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia. It is a functional prototyping/maker space that supports collaboration between medical professionals and technology.
 

 
Like any design studio, it's filled with paper, pens, sticky notes, glue, and popsicle sticks. But this lab has a crucial secret weapon: an Ultimaker desktop 3D printer.
 
The JeffDESIGN team meticulously researched desktop 3D printing options and found that Ultimaker offered precision and reliability while adding practical tools. Ultimaker's clean aesthetic makes professionals roll up their sleeves and operate the tool. As Dr. Ku says: "People are still interested in 3D printing in healthcare, and while engineers might be bored – it's just another thing – we've shown our 3D printers to medical students and doctors, and suddenly they're telling us, 'For us, the appearance of 3D printers is like a sudden realization – this is no longer an untouchable technology! It can actually be placed on your desk, and it's easy to use.'"
 
The JeffDESIGN program spends time in the lab teaching medical students, doctors, and nurses, without needing to spend an entire semester on CAD 3D drawing, just to print a practical object.

The products designed and manufactured by these students are not only useful but also unique, completely different from mass-produced medical devices. These designs are more accurately tailored to the needs of patients, rather than thinking about how to be seen among a wide array of medical equipment products. Solutions are drawn from practical patient training and experience, which can lead to better quality healthcare in the future.