The University of Toronto has partnered up with a hospital from Uganda and an NGO to 3D print prosthetics in order to speed up the process of helping Ugandan people who’ve lost a limb. Professor Matt Ratto is using 3D scanning technology to scan patients arms and sending the scans to technicians who design customized prosthetic arms. The designers then send a computer file of the design back to Uganda where it is printed on a 3D printer.
“We will feel the reward when we see that first child walk off down the street wearing a prosthetic socket that we made,” said Ratto, who noted that project is expected to launch in early 2016 in the African region.
Prosthetic limbs are a natural application for the 3D printing technology. Although they can be mass-produced, prostheses must be customized to suit a recipient’s individual physiology. Traditional assessing and fitting procedures take many days or weeks, and require specialized knowledge of an on-site prosthetic technician.
“The major issue with prosthetics in the developing world is not access to the materials of prosthetics; it is access to the expert knowledge required to form and create them,” says Ratto. “We’re lacking prosthetic technicians, not prosthetics themselves.”
“We’re seeing if we can capture a 3D model of a child’s residual limb – whatever they have left after an amputation – turn that model into a 3D model and convert that into a printable socket that can serve to support a prosthetic limb,” Ratto said in an interview with Global News reporter Christina Stevens.
