The $100 3D-Printed Artificial Limb 86
harrymcc writes "In 2012, TIME wrote about Daniel Omar, a 14-year-old in South Sudan who lost both arms to a bomb dropped by his own government. Mick Ebeling of Not Impossible Labs read the story, was moved — and went to Sudan, where he set up a 3D printing lab which can produce an artificial arm for $100. Omar and others have received them, and Ebeling hopes that other organizations around the world will adopt his open-source design to help amputees, many of whom will never receive more conventional prosthetics."
Fancy that... (Score:1)
Someone producing a medical device at basically the cost of goods price.
Re:Fancy that... (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't worry, big pharma will lobby for and get regulations against anything so convenient and affordable.
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No, but that has never stopped the FDA before. They'll just send in the FDA SWAT team to bust this lawbreaker, creating untested medical equipment. The nerve!
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An FDA SWAT team, sir, in Africa?
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I find it amusing that you believe the US federal government believes in any limit to their reach. Many events of the last decade indicate otherwise.
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There are laws against doing all manner of things to yourself.
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Nobody is making these limbs themselves. Africans don't own 3D printers. Somebody else is making it for them.
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Then we get the two remaining groups to somehow tak
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There's not that much of a business regulatory environment in South Sudan.
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> Don't worry, big pharma will lobby for and get regulations against anything so convenient and affordable.
When a similar article first got posted about this a few months back, I sarcastically suggested he be thrown in jail for not getting permission for human experiments. I got downmodded, no doubt by people who love the combination of having an FDA and deliberately looking the other way in warm-and-fuzzy cases like this.
I guess it's how you phrase it.
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Well I doubt it's near the quality of an engineered, titanium prosthetic. But it's a start, and if the plans are open source, other designers could improve them, on their own time, for free, out of the kindness of their hearts.
Over time, we could even see ABS plastic prosthetics with the same level of engineering as the $100k versions, and maybe by then we'll even see cheaper 3D metal printers and home built CNC machines. It could change everything.
Of course, it'd be nice if we could stop seeing poor people
Reado (Immutable version of a typo) (Score:1)
I misread it as "Artificial Lamb". I was thinking, that's pretty lame if you are too much of a loser to get the real thing.
do Sudanese like video games? (Score:4, Informative)
For $120, you can give the gift of GOAT [heifer.org].
Re:do Sudanese like video games? (Score:5, Funny)
Click on a link called "Goat"? Yeah right.
Re: do Sudanese like video games? (Score:1)
I suspect it's still in relative costs cheaper than getting one over here in America ( I don't know what an artificial limb of that quality would cost here, but I suspect more than 10k assuming something quality equivalent is available, in reality I suspect it'd be higher quality and much more expensive than 10k).
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Yeah giving goats also accelerates deterioration of the land because of defoliation from indiscriminate grazing.
I know the goats can be used to help regenerate vegetation, but the people receiving it are only interested in fattening the goat
that take care of what little fertile land they have left.
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And all cultures can relate to this gift --- it is language neutral and culturally independent. Which as they say in Canada is "Really good deal!"
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$100 is too expensive for an artificial lamb [muttonbone.com].
I didn't RTFA or TFS (Score:3)
but I'm going to go ahead and say that there is some organization that believes it has the right to require testing, certification or some other factor that will increase the $100 limb to the $10,000 limb.
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Malpractice insurers?
Re:I didn't RTFA or TFS (Score:5, Informative)
The beautiful thing about this is that while such certification and testing may be required of manufacturers and distributors of such products, there is nothing that can be done to stop you from building one yourself or with a few friends.
There are others [robohand.net] who have also traveled this path, and a number of open source designs available for anyone to have a go at: Robohand @ Thingiverse [thingiverse.com], Prosthetics @ Thingiverse [thingiverse.com]
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Unless you can be sure that an artificial limb is safe for the workplace it's not going to have much value outside of novelty.
Really? Ask the guy who can now pickup or hold something, where he couldn't before, if that is a novelty.
Re:I didn't RTFA or TFS (Score:5, Informative)
Having worked with prosthetics for years as an occularist and training to make prosthtic limbs, I know just how complex they can become.
There are two main categories of limbs, AK (or AE) and BK (or BE) depending on if the patient's limbs were removed Above the Knee (/elbow) or Below the Knee (/elbow). AK prosthetics are MUCH more complex than BK due to having to produce a joint that locks when needed then unlocks when needed. It's not simple at all. Arms are much the same, adding an elbow joint greatly increases the complexity and cost to produce a working prosthetic.
Remember this: The prosthetic was produced for $100 in parts. That does not cover the time it took to produce the device. It doesn't cover the cost of the machine that produced the device. It didn't cover the cost of the education that the manufacturer was required to have (If he was working in the US prior to this) and it didn't cover any of the training that's needed to be able to actually use one of these devices. All of those costs were shouldered by the men who chose to help. That's wonderful! I applaud it readily!
But I don't think it's sustainable. What happens when rent is due or someone wants him to pay for dinner? Free is not sustainable. Should a prosthetic device cost $10,000? Probably not. $100,000? I can think of three devices which cost that much. One is a leg that has powered ankle and knee joints which allow users to walk, jog, climb, and run like normal people. One is a hand that moves like a real hand and is controlled by the user's thoughts. The other is a prosthetic eye which actually allows a blind person to see again. They are all so expensive because they are bleeding edge devices which are still in trials (and as such, only a few of them actually exist to purchase.)
In reality, a prosthetic eye shouldn't cost more than $100-200. The problem with that is that there are so few people who need them, and the skills required to make them are so complex, that it would be impossible to survive as an occularist without charging much, much more. (I see about 100 clients a year and I am the only occularist in my state.)
Prosthetic legs are different. 80% of a prosthetic leg comes off a shelf. I buy feet, ankles, knees, and "shins;" then bolt them on to sockets I make custom for each patient. I don't have any control over how much a knee costs my clients. I could easily hire a machinist to produce the parts for a fraction of the cost, but that is illegal. I could easily go to the hardware store and grab a 1 inch aluminum pipe to use as a shin for a client for a couple of dollars, but it's illegal to do so even though it's the exact same part I buy for around $100 from a supplier.
Even if I could cut my costs down by making or buying cheaper parts legally, it would be impossible to produce a $100 prosthetic in anything resembling a sustainable business model. There just aren't enough clients out there who need my services for me to keep my employees lights on at that price.
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And a good post=very informative.
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I could easily go to the hardware store and grab a 1 inch aluminum pipe to use as a shin for a client for a couple of dollars, but it's illegal to do so even though it's the exact same part I buy for around $100 from a supplier.
In the US, maybe. But this article is about Sudan. Luckily we don't have tens of thousands of people a year losing limbs due to a horrible civil war, and luckily they don't have any lawyers.
Sure, living in a war-torn country and working for minimal pay is not probably not something you (or I) want to do, but luckily there are in fact people who do. And the victims/patients have no money whatsoever, so it won't matter to them whether it's $100 or $100,000. But it will matter to those people/companies/gov
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Worth investigating: an Indian charity [jaipurfoot.org] worked with together with Stanford [jaipurfoot.org] and MIT D-Lab [mit.edu] to develop <$50 above-knee prosthetics, and has been building 60,000+ per year for the last few years... Again, that's part cost, not chargable cost, but still...
Here's an article about them from 2011: http://www.smh.com.au/world/indians-work-miracles-on-a-shoestring-20110617-1g7yl.html [smh.com.au] (mirrored at http://jaipurfoot.org/media/media_reports/pdf/shoestring.pdf [jaipurfoot.org])
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The prosthetic was produced for $100 in parts. That does not cover the time it took to produce the device. It doesn't cover the cost of the machine that produced the device. It didn't cover the cost of the education that the manufacturer was required to have (If he was working in the US prior to this) and it didn't cover any of the training that's needed to be able to actually use one of these devices. All of those costs were shouldered by the men who chose to help.
For the cost of a few years of the occasional weekend my 12 year old niece learned the equivalent of a bachelors degree in computer science. Of course it was a labour of love for me. Now, at 14 she has taught two of her friends C programming. Perhaps you over value the price of knowledge due to the ridiculously moronic accreditation system, which will award no degrees to these babes in their toy-langauge land. The knowledge and skill to assemble and calibrate a 3D printer and start making things accurat
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I think the intent with projects like this is to show that it can be done using technology and know-how available in the place where the problems exist.
Producing limbs for $100's, is *not* going to pay for the labour and consulting for a "Westerner" to do it and sustainably maintain a Western lifestyle.
But there are plenty of people in Sudan who have the motivation and means to apply the method locally. The amazing part in my mind is that using a method like this, Sudan doesn't need to depend on expens
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Producing limbs for $100's, is *not* going to pay for the labour and consulting for a "Westerner" to do it and sustainably maintain a Western lifestyle.
Well, the trauma surgeon from the article who has saved hundreds of lives while living in the mountains in Sudan isn't worried about maintaining his Western lifestyle. He's probably just living off of some basic grants that account for about 5% of what his peers in the US are spending on their swimming pools and golf games.
But I'm not really disagreeing - just pointing out that there are also highly skilled people donating their time (and many others donating money) to make these things happen. Even $100
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One step closer to... (Score:4, Funny)
...building my own girlfriend.
Re: One step closer to... (Score:2)
Real close, my girlfriend is just an arm and a hand.
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An arm and a fleshlight would do just as well, perhaps better.
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Prosthetics are exempt from the vast majority of FDA regs. So what was the excuse for gouging amputees down to the bone again?
Comparison to conventional prosthetics? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Average annual inccome for Sudan is $2400 U.S.D. > $46,000 in the States.
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It would be interesting to know how long these printed artificial limbs will hold up compared to a conventional prosthetic limb. It would also be interesting to know how much a conventional prosthetic could be made for w/o all of the overhead. I realize that in the US there's a ton of money dumped into testing, trials, FDA approval, lawyers and fear of being sued. But why can't conventional prosthetic limbs be made in countries like this without all of the legal BS? Obviously they can be printed w/o it. I don't know what the average yearly wage is in Sudan, but $100 could be a rather sizable amount of money. Regardless, good for Mr. Ebeling for trying to make a difference.
I only know the consumer end of it.
Obviously there is overhead - the prosthetist has an office, staff, equipment. Then there's the work and expertise - there's a lot of custom fitting and casting involved, especially with the sockets. Usually multiple appointments and fittings. Then of course the parts that aren't custom come from a supply chain, with markup along the way. And there's the insane markup from it being something covered (to some extent, with some insurances) by insurance and government program
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It would be interesting to know how long these printed artificial limbs will hold up compared to a conventional prosthetic limb. It would also be interesting to know how much a conventional prosthetic could be made for w/o all of the overhead. I realize that in the US there's a ton of money dumped into testing, trials, FDA approval, lawyers and fear of being sued. But why can't conventional prosthetic limbs be made in countries like this without all of the legal BS? Obviously they can be printed w/o it. I don't know what the average yearly wage is in Sudan, but $100 could be a rather sizable amount of money. Regardless, good for Mr. Ebeling for trying to make a difference.
The other thing to consider is that this makes prosthetics for children (who have this annoying tendency to grow) MUCH easier -- I'm sure someone could even design a limb that is designed to be expandable, so that you only have to re-print a few key parts as the child grows, instead of having to make a new limb every year.
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The idea of using the 3D printer to make the fiddly bits is excellent. It's also possible to use regular materials to make limb pieces. PVC pipe has been used in India.
In the long run,
Durability (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder how long those limbs last under the hard use they will be put through.
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+1 I'll donate a $1 to that DP-decynicalization project.
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Re:3D printing hype nonsense (Score:5, Informative)
You did read the article and watch the video, right?
When the $100 figure is cited, they are not saying that the Sudanese will be forking over that sum, they are saying that at that price point, they can be provided as a charitable cause. Considering this guy was able to raise the money to do this in the first place, I am sure there is material resupply money at hand.
Also, you are a jerk.
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You might note that your 'robotic hand' solution has the slight downfall of needing an actual hand to operate it :P
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Hey dawg! We heard you needed a robotic arm so we're sending you a robotic arm for your robotic arm.
how is it controled? (Score:2)
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If the prosthetic leg starts below the knee there is little need for an active joint. Keeping balance while standing still will require training though.
If the hip joint is intact the user can throw the foot forward to get the leg where he wants it. Then the user can stand on it and the pressure on the leg can lock the knee.
It isn't easy to walk this way but it can be done and beats having nothing or something that doesn't fit, which is often the ca
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artificial brains (Score:1)
Term Defined (Score:1)
So when someone says it would cost an arm and a leg, we now know that is $200.
Thanks for the info!
On a more serious note, anybody have an update on
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2011/may/22/joshua-silver-glasses-self-adjusting [theguardian.com]
Did this project take off?