3-D-printed prostheses are significantly faster, cheaper and easier to produce than more traditional versions, making them accessible to these patients who would otherwise likely be unable to attain any prosthetics. It takes just 24 hours to design and print a limb, and it can be specifically customized for each patient.
“Rather than exploring electronic solutions or very complicated solutions, we want to keep things as simple as possible but also durable,” Safa Herfat, one of MSF’s biomedical engineers, told New Atlas. The cost of a 3-D-printed prosthesis comes in at around $20, “rather than the hundreds of dollars a normal upper limb prosthesis would cost.”