Man Saves Wife's Sight By 3D Printing Her Tumor

An anonymous reader writes: Michael Balzer, a former software engineer and Air Force technical instructor, found himself unsatisfied with a doctor's diagnosis of a small tumor behind his wife's left eye. Balzer had recently become proficient at creating 3D models, so he asked the doctor for the raw medical imaging data and took a look himself. In addition to correcting a later misdiagnosis, Balzer 3D printed models of his wife's cranium and helped neurosurgeons plan a procedure to remove the tumor, instead of waiting to see how it developed, like previous doctors had recommended. During the procedure, surgeons found the tumor was beginning to entangle her optic nerve, and even a six-month wait would have had dire consequences for her eyesight.

Medical researchers like Dr. Michael Patton believe this sort of prototyping will become "the new normal" in a very short time. He says, "What you can now do through 3D printing is like what you're able to do in the software world: Rapid iteration, fail fast, get something to market quickly. You can print the prototypes, and then you can print out model organs on which to test the products. You can potentially obviate the need for some animal studies, and you can do this proof of concept before extensive patient trials are conducted.

Comments

3d printing irrelevant

[sonicmerlin]

It sounds to me like the actual 3d printing was less important than the 3d model. I'm not sure what the first doctor's problem was. Usually an MRI gives you a detailed model that you can look at from multiple angles. You don't just measure the size from one point of view. That doesn't even make sense.

Re:Anyone else concerned?

[ibpooks]

Not concerned at all, he helped them to develop and use a tool they didn't understand how to use and didn't have access to previously. It's how progress is really made. Experts from two different fields find a way to work together to solve problems that neither could solve independently.

Re:Anyone else concerned?

[gstoddart]

Not being constrained by traditional things, having skin in the game, and having a skillset which differs from what the doctors do -- all of these combine for him to take a whack at it in a way they'd never think of.

If anything, this highlights how a breakthrough can come from an outsider.

And I bet all of a sudden a lot of medical people are saying "wait, he did what?" and "where can I get one?".

Re:This could be fun....

[Lumpy]

And knowing the medical industry, you will be charged $5500 for the printing and $9100 for the "medical 3d modeling specialist" that stands there watching it print.

And the 3D printer will have to be FDA approved and cost well over 22 million dollars.

Re:This could be fun....

[ColdWetDog]

And the 3D printer will have to be FDA approved and cost well over 22 million dollars.

Not quite... Since it's not actually PART of the imager itself, it needn't be FDA approved. However, if it were .... yes. We had a generic hard drive fail on our CT. Just a typicall 400 GB SATA drive. We had literally dozens of them hanging around but we couldn't use it because they were not special FDA approved generic SATA hard drives. No special firmware needed - the console for the CT runs a GE version of Linux (you can see this as it boots). All the drive did was hold the images temporarily. It couldn't kill the patient unless you threw it at them. But we had to shut the machine down for 48 hours until they could FexEx a drive to Anchorage and commercial jet it in.

So, we'd probably only charge $2000 for the gizmo (the specialist time would be included since they are not a doctor - you can only add special charges for doctors).

See, you feel better already.

Which shows the failure of capitalist medicine

[gestalt_n_pepper]

Doctors make no profit out of difficult diagnoses. They have a business to run. They're a mill. Get 'em in. Get 'em out. If it looks like something even slightly nonstandard, shove them off to another specialist so that they can bear the cost, and liability. That neurologist isn't going to bother to read the journals, or keep up with technology, or make any extra effort at all. He's got 25 other people to see today and he's already running late and there's a hiring meeting in 20 minutes because the single good support employee his practice has is threatening to quit, and there's another meeting with the lawyer this afternoon about the tumors he missed because he was just too rushed that day.

Socialized medicine has its own problems, but at least you can get a doctor focused on medicine.

Re:Which shows the failure of capitalist medicine

[BarbaraHudson]

Canada has socialized medicine. Family doctors are paid a flat amount per patient visit by the government.

I'll let you guess how motivating a difficult diagnosis is for a doctor here vs "My timmy has a cold!"

Your same failure is a failure in any environment where people are paid for their labour. About the only case where it doesn't fail that I can think of is communism.

And the family doctor (if you have one - I don't) will quickly refer you to a specialist because that's the right thing to do. Doesn't waste your time or his/her time. Or if it's serious, go to the ER and you'll see a specialist the same day. And if you need a doctor for follow-up care, isn't it better to have a specialist doing it rather than the delays associated with a G.P. playing broken telephone with the specialists?

I have 4 different specialists who I see on a regular basis, and if something crops up between regular visits, I just have to make a phone call. They answer my questions, they describe what's going on, and I think they're all great.

It's funny because this is SO in contrast to the experiences of some of the people I know who have nothing to do but complain about their doctors. Same Canadian system, even the same hospitals, but you wouldn't believe it listening to them. I think a big part of that problem is their attitude. They go to the doctor and they already have it in their heads what the doctor should do, and if the doctor doesn't, "they're crap." Me, when I go, I say "I think I need your help", ask questions in a non-confrontational way, thank them, and follow their directions. Just like I talk to and thank the technicians, the resident doctors, the nurses, the medical secretaries, and the receptionists.

Attitudes matter. I've seen people get mad because we had to wait a few hours because our doctor was called out. The reason - emergency surgery on a newborn's eyes. Me, I figure "Hey take all the time you need."

Re:Anyone else concerned?

[angel'o'sphere]

Sorry, but if the CT software / computer is not hopeless outdated, the doctors should have been able to see at a 3D visualization and hardly had need for a 3D printed model.
Your parent is quite right, it is a scandal that the doctors missinterpreted the data and wanted to wait 6 more month to see how "it develops"
Bottom line they IM(ns)HO simply wanted to increase the costs for the insurance and hence earn kore money (at cost of the patients eye sight!)

Re:Anyone else concerned?

[Overzeetop]

Not at all. A technically minded person who's entire career is solving problems throws several hundred hours at solving a problem vs a doctor who is allotted 2-6 hours to solve the same problem and has a hundred other patients who are clamoring for his time. Which do you think would solve a complex problem?

I encounter it every day as a professional engineer who designs buildings. I get $600 (about 4 hours of time) to solve the entire wind and seismic resisting system on a small building and if you decide the entire first floor will be all glass I'll tell you you can't do it. If you're an engineer (but not necessarily a structural one) and decide to design a system yourself and you spend 400 hours on it there's a good chance you'll come up with a solution. For $40,000 in your time, you've solved problem worth $600 on the open market.

And, FWIW, I can solve that kind of problem in under 40 hours - maybe $6000 - but if you offer me $600 to solve the problem, I'm going to tell you that it can't be done [for that money].