3D Printing Update: How Doctors & Designers Are Teaming Up

If you’ve ever had to suffer through weeks of hauling around an ugly plaster cast on your arm or leg, here’s some news from the medical field that could make your day. Physicians and designers are using 3D technology to create new kinds of casts that are not only lighter, breathable and better medical aides overall. Some look pretty stylish too.

And there are more advantages: These casts can safely be exposed to water, eliminating the need to wrap your broken limb in a plastic bag before showering. They can even be equipped with ultrasound devices that speed up the healing of bones. And the biggest bonus? No more itchy places you can’t reach under a plaster cast. These 3D casts are open-weave and comfortable.

Fast Company recently reported how doctors and designers are casting a whole new light on a better way to hold our limbs in place while they heal.

But casts are just one of the many medical approaches being explored and re-imagined through 3D.

Stay tuned.