The Critical Making Lab at the University of Toronto has partnered with an international NGO and a Ugandan hospital to help bring prosthetics to the developing world through 3-D printing.
The scanning and printing process will "speed the process of creating and fitting sockets for artificial limbs," according to an article that appeared in PC Tech Magazine.
“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 Matt Ratto, a professor in the Faculty of Information laboratory, in the article.
The 3-D printing allows the researchers to make a prosthetic in less than 24 hours.
"The underserved population is largely rural," says ginger coons (who spells her name in lower-case), a PhD student in Ratto’s laboratory, in the article. "People have to come to the hospital. Not many can afford the long stay. We want to make their stay a lot shorter."
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Original source: PC Tech Magazine