3D Printing The Cast Of The Future

humanisticscience:

alphacaeli:

rudeandgingersansa:

Cortex: The 3D-Printed Cast

After many centuries of splints and cumbersome plaster casts that have been the itchy and smelly bane of millions of children, adults and the aged alike the world over, we at last bring fracture support into the 21st century. The Cortex exoskeletal cast provides a highly technical and trauma zone localized support system that is fully ventilated, super light, shower friendly, hygienic, recyclable and stylish.

The cortex cast utilizes the x-ray and 3d scan of a patient with a fracture and generates a 3d model in relation to the point of fracture.

By Jake Evill

after breaking my wrist five times and having it in a cast for over 18 months combined … YOU MAKE THIS NOW!?

I wonder if this actually works.

I love this concept but right now it would be incredibly costly and time-consuming to produce. Great concept though if is actually an effective way of splinting and immobilizing a fracture. I’d like to see this tested.

Steve Brill on the state of healthcare in the US

tomguarriello:

What is it that makes US citizens believe we have “the best healthcare in the world” when all factual indicators make it clear that we don’t? 

Remember, roughly 100,000 Americans die each year due to preventable medical errors. Over 1,000,000 patients are injured in hospitals. 

Yet, ask almost any American about the quality of our healthcare system, and you’ll get a similar response: best in the world.

Why? What is it that keeps us believing this fiction in the face of overwhelming evidence?

I think a major factor is America’s post World War II “supremacy complex.”

In the decades following the war, America’s consumer society exploded. America became the world leader in practically every material category. In town after town, hospitals were built, doctors trained, health insurance provided. 

And the broader rallying cry became: U-S-A, U-S-A!

But things have changed.

The realities of the 21st century have not yet sunk in for most Americans: America is struggling.

We remain a model of individual rights and freedoms. Yet so much of the nation’s infrastructure suffers from neglect. Our healthcare system is one of those areas.

The fact that roughly 2,000 Americans a week—almost 300 per day…the equivalent of a loaded 747 crashing every single day!—die due to medical mistakes should frighten and anger every citizen.

Instead, we continue to live under the illusion that our healthcare system is the best in the world.

We need to wake up and help everyone recognize and tackle the healthcare crisis we’re facing.

It’s not Obamacare that should frighten us. It’s healthcare business as usual that should. 

Tom Peters has written about this extensively. Love the reference to the “Superiority Complex” btw.

History of Electronic Health Records

cranquis:

numberneededtotreat:

YouTube | The History of EHRs

Excellent, short description of one reason why electronic medical records are terrible—the original development has not been driven by creating a clinical tool for doctors, but more of an administrative tool for others in healthcare (i.e.—administrators and payers)

Agree, agree, agree. My particular thoughts on this video:

  1. “Meaningful Use” — HAHAHA! What a waste of time. Do you know that my EHR now REQUIRES me to enter a blood pressure on any patient AS YOUNG AS 2 YEARS OLD before I can actually “see” the patient? Even though no study shows that measuring BP in all kids under 12 provides any useful data to improve their health? “But it’s required, for meaningful use” whine the EHR people. FACE-SLAPS ALL AROUND.
  2. Yay Epocrates!
  3. Have you ever tried to read an old visit note in an EHR? Think about how much scrolling and scrolling and scrolling you did before you finally found the one tiny sentence or phrase which actually gave you any clinically-useful information. The rest of that crap? Coding and Billing fluff.
  4. @ 2:05, I love the woman who is just standing there staring at the white board in the background. That would be me if I was ever trapped in one of these types of meetings. Maybe doodling a tiny Cranquis curb-stomping a tiny laptop, Office Space style.
  5. Dr. Dombrowski’s idea of “getting all the governmental agencies… on the same page” about EHR is nice and all — but unless doctors/nurses/PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY SEE PATIENTS are in charge of those much-needed revisions, things will never ever improve with EHR.

Awesome video, awesome commentary from Cranquis

User Experience is critical, so is Alignment of interests. Doesn’t seem to be much of either going on right now