About a year ago, we reported on a humanitarian effort initiated by several rapid-prototyping companies. They were assisting Iraqi surgeons in helping patients wounded by bullets and car bombs. It's a great story. So why have you not heard it from other sources? Some say only bad news makes TV news because it's more attention getting. This effort is apparently unworthy of TV news because it doesn't paint America as evil.
In any case, the companies that volunteered technical assistance to Iraqi surgeons are 3D Systems, Stratasys, Z Corp, Medical Modeling, a software and services company called Materialise, Wohlers Associates, and others. A typical scenario that involves their assistance starts when a wounded patient is hospitalized with facial injuries, quite common in Iraq. A CT scan shows the damaged bone and pinpoints splinters. A file output from the scanner is transferred by Internet to Materialize offices in Belgium where technicians transform it into more recognizable images. They remove the soft-tissue information to reveal the geometry of the damaged bone, which is turned into an STL file. This goes to one of the rapid prototyping companies for transformation into a life size physical model of the damage. It's then returned to the hospital in Iraq by DHL, a recent contributor.
Experienced surgeons can then plan operations by examining precise models of what they’ll be working on instead of foggy X-rays. Furthermore, any braces and screws needed can be sized before the operation. If Iraqi surgeons have the same results with the RP models as doctors in the U.S., their surgeries are up to 30% shorter and follow-on procedures are either eliminated or minimized.
Turnaround from CT to physical model in the hands of a surgeon initially took about 50 days. But the Web site, rp4baghdad.org, now reports turnarounds in less than a week. The program has assisted with about 54 surgeries, as of October 2006.
Read Dr. Omar's compelling journal there. It's bad enough he has to delay operations because simple things, such as oxygen, are in short supply. But his team must also contend with insurgents occasionally setting off car bombs near the hospital. The good news is that more companies have volunteered services to the project. The Web site lists about 16. The whole operation is voluntary. "More good news, sort of, is that below-the-knee amputees are being fitted with prosthetics," says Terry Wohlers, president of the industry consulting firm Wohlers Associates. "For instance, when a prosthetic is needed for a leg, the remaining portion of a limb can be scanned to capture its exact shape. This information goes to the U.S. where Realadi Inc., translates it into an exact negative surface, which is used to produce the prosthetic. Patients say they are comfortable with the new legs in a few hours rather than the few weeks for traditional fittings," he adds. Although there are 300 civilians on a waiting list at one medical clinic in Baghdad, many more could use the service.
This is engineering at its best so kudos to the companies that have pitched in. If you'd like to help, rp4baghdad.org says it still needs distractor kits, prostheses, titanium screws and plates, and cash donations.
The editorial published in October 2006