3D printing is a hot topic in the news at the moment and everyone seems to be interested when you’re talking about it. Seven paramedical care students of the minor Care Technology (at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) had the opportunity to work with it. Twan van Dam and Felix van Balgooi investigated the possibilities of 3D printing in paramedical care at Waag's Fablab.
To see if paramedics could use the 3D printer themselves, and to see if they could create the objects themselves, they decided to make their own finger splint. Two different modelling software programs were used and evaluated: Blender and Rhinoceros, but they we weren't satisfied with the results. The software was thought to be too hard for paramedics to use, and it took too much time to learn, so in the end Grasshopper (an add-on for Rhinoceros) was used to make the 3D model easily adjustable. Mickael Boulay of our Creative Care Lab assisted in making the 3D model.
A short introductory movie about the project can be found here (YouTube).
