The new 3d printing lab at Clarkson College can print a variety of different parts of the human anatomy.
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If you’ve ever needed a medical procedure, you might have felt confused when your doctor explained what exactly will be done. A new 3D printing and training center at Clarkson College hopes to turn that confusion into knowledge.
And this kind of technology is particularly special to the administrator of Clarkson’s program.
“Back in February, my son at 10 months of age was diagnosed with a Choroid Plexus Papilloma, brain tumor in the third ventricle of his brain,” Blair Kauzlarich said.
Kauzlarich got a copy of her son’s CT and MRI scans from medical records. Then she teamed up with a radiologist to make a 3D version of Callum’s brain.
“3D Printing has really become the language of healthcare,” she said.
The printing lab at Clarkson Colege can print a variety of different parts of the human anatomy.
“Sometimes patients don’t understand medical imaging. You look at a black and white image, you scroll through, you look at it in all different views, you might not understand what you’re looking at,” Kauzlarich said.
But Kauzlarich said seeing a medical condition in its physical form can be incredibly helpful for both patients and physicians.
“It’s definitely used for patient care to better understand what diagnosis they have and what they’re going to be going through,” she said.
Callum’s tumor ended up not being cancerous. But Blair says knowing where exactly it was helped her decide which method of surgery would be best.
“My husband and I were then on the same page as far as making medical decisions for our son because we both knew what it was we were dealing with,” Kauzlarich said.
It’s an experience that pushed her to make more people aware of 3D printing.
“I’m in a unique situation where it’s my job but also I’ve lived it,” she said. “It should be available to anybody that needs to go through something like we did with our son.”
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