More than a deck of cards

     The region that I live in doesn't always get painted in the best light. Ohioans are situated in the Rust Belt and Akron was once considered the rubber capital of the world. I included these in past tense because these industries have shrank considerably the past 30 years. Which means it is ripe for ancillary industries to take it's place as it is well situated for research and production. One specialty of the region that is often overlooked is the world-class hospitals that are located here. Whether you are looking for heart surgery or pediatric care Ohio, especially Northeast Ohio is often considered the place to go to receive the proper care. The University of Kentucky has jumped ahead in the area of pre-surgical preparation with the replica 3d printed heart. For the price of 600 dollars a heart was replicated that enabled a successful on an infant. The cost of medical equipment built for prescision and reliability the addition of a 3d printer should be something that every hospital administrator should be looking to squeeze into their budget. The pace of digitizing hospital records has been moving along at a crawl. However, the addition of 3d printer compatible scans may quicken the adoption and conversion.

   The other news items fall into the same category. The only difference is non-invasive surgery is the focus. Doctors without borders often goes to remote areas of the world to perform often simple surgeries on children in 3rd world countries. Lately, they have been overshadowed by more complicated facial reconstruction made easier by 3d printers. CT scans were used to determine how to restore symmetry to a face that was damaged in a UK car accident. Hopefully, these same techniques can be brought over to a problem facing many seniors which is replacement hips and knees. These could be adjusted for gaits additional weight and any other normal stresses the human body would be able to handle at an advanced age. Hopefully these advancements will help the region and people around the world that come here for health care.