Britt Young

And there are a number of charities and development organizations that are doing this.

They're bringing low cost 3D printers to different parts of the world, especially war torn regions, to try to help them develop low cost and quickly printable prosthetics.

Many of the prosthetists I spoke to have said one of the main real benefits of 3D printing is that kind of knowledge sharing.

And knowledge sharing in parts of the world, that may be harder to get to.

But the major limitation seems to be just the skills, who is available out there to do these fittings.

Some organizations set up 3D printing wherever it is that they're working in the Global South or in low-resourced countries.

And they teach them how to do a 3D scan.

And then that scan actually gets sent back to the prosthetics firm in the UK or in the United States and then shipping it back out.

I'm not sure if that's a very sustainable model, but I'm glad that that is a new avenue for people who may otherwise never receive a device.

You know, I'm not sure.

I think that there are very powerful forces in the United States that want to keep medical costs high.

However, if we are able to

work together in pushing for a new regime around prosthetics and thinking about these devices in a totally different way, that they are not something that needs...

you know, 10 doctors to be approved for, that they are simply assistive devices and that all of us, disabled or able-bodied, all of us use assistive devices every day.

If we're able to rethink that, then perhaps we can realize a world where these devices and 3D printing can actually make a difference.