Michigan Tech students 3D-print devices to aid arthritis sufferers

A Michigan Tech student 3D-printed a device to help arthritis sufferers clip their finger nails.

Excerpted from an article written by Allison Mills that appears on the Michigan Tech website. — Ed.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that almost a quarter of the U.S. population lives with some form of arthritis. Daily tasks — like opening drawers, turning door handles — can be difficult, so people turn to adaptive aids. Many are small pieces of plastic.

“It never ceases to amaze me what a small piece of plastic sells for,” said Joshua Pearce, the Richard Witte Endowed Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Michigan Tech.

Adaptive aids range from $5.99 for a soda-can tab opener to a pill splitter for $23.75 to a phone holder for $49.99. With 3D printing, those costs can come down to 45 cents for a tab popper, $1.27 to split pills and 79 cents plus a rubber band to hold a phone.

“Anyone who needs an adaptive aid for arthritis should be 3D printing it,” said Pearce.

So, he had his class take a shot. Now, Pearce is a co-author and corresponding researcher on a new study that analyzes how 20 of the 3D-printed adaptive aids his class printed provide huge cost savings and either meet — or improve — standards for existing products.

The study was published in Geriatrics journal and is co-authored by student research assistant Nicole Gallup and orthopedic surgeon Jennifer Bow, who is also a visiting scholar at Michigan Tech.

Click here to read the entire article.

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