/ News
3D-printed medical device rescues baby's breath
A baby with a rare condition will get to go home for the first time thanks to a 3D-printed airway splint that is helping him breathe on his own.
Garrett Peterson is only 18 months old, but he has been hooked to a ventilator just to stay alive. He suffers from a serious form of tracheobronchomalacia, which causes his breathing airways to collapse. Even slight movements can trigger the problem, so he has been unable to go home with his parents, Natalie and Jake Peterson. That's about to change thanks to the use of a 3D-printed trachael splint.
"Nothing would stop him from turning blue," said Natalie Peterson in a release from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, where Garrett underwent surgery in January. "Just lifting his legs for diaper change would collapse his airways and that was it. There was nothing we could do to help him."
These 3D-printed splints were made to match Garrett. (Credit: University of Michigan Health System)
Using a technique pioneered by researchers from the University of Michigan, Garrett was surgically fitted with a custom splint. It was printed based on a 3D model made from a CT scan of the baby's bronchi and trachea. The splint is now helping to keep his airways open, and he is being weaned from the ventilator.
Glenn Green is one of the doctors who developed the device, and he assisted in Garrett's surgery. "This is absolutely fabulous. We know that the splint's working. He's able to ventilate both lungs for the first time. I'm very optimistic for him," said Green shortly after the surgery.
The splint was printed using polycaprolactone, a type of biopolymer that will break down and be absorbed by the body over the course of a few years. By the time the splint is gone, Garrett's airways should be strong enough to stay open without assistance.
This is only the second time the technique has been used. The first time was last year, when a baby with the same condition received the device. That child recently turned 2 and is doing well, with no lingering symptoms from the condition, according to the release. News of that successful first attempt prompted Garrett's parents to look to the 3D-printed splint as a solution.
Before the splint, Garrett would stop breathing up to several times a day and he wasn't getting better. Since 3D printers have grown in popularity, doctors and designers have used them for everything from casts to prosthetics. Garrett's case shows just how great an impact this burgeoning technology can have on a life. It's giving a child who couldn't even go home a ticket to a normal life.
Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57620434-1/3d-printed-medical-device-rescues-babys-breath/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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