L-VMA Tours 'Science Fiction' Medical Laboratory that Is Saving Lives Today

The scene at Medical Modeling Inc. of Golden, Colorado, is one borrowed directly from science fiction. In a storefront setting, attended not by physicians but by well-trained, casually dressed craftspeople, "bionic" body parts are being sculpted and readied for study and implantation.

Golden, CO (PRWEB) January 26, 2008 - The Low-Volume Manufacturers Association recently visited the office-laboratories of Medical Modeling Inc. and reports on the company's miraculous progress at www.l-vma.org.

The scene at Medical Modeling, as L-VMA reports, is one borrowed directly from science fiction. In a storefront setting, attended not by physicians but by well-trained, casually dressed craftspeople, "bionic" body parts are being sculpted and readied for study and implantation.

On one computer screen, a patient is having a new hip joint engineered to order. On a second screen, a customized titanium plate is being perfectly paired to match the missing tip of an injured patient's skull.

Nearby, a blue laser beam dances over a pool of liquefied photopolymer resin darting from one computer-guided target to another. Slowly, but steadily, out of the glop will emerge the anatomically exact model of a patient's heart and vascular structure -- allowing the patient's surgeon to accurately plan his approach to the surgery on the model -- even while the patient lies -- chest open -- on the operating table.

This isn't science fiction.

It is just another typical day at Medical Modeling, the rapidly expanding tactile imaging company that is using rapid additive fabrication and electron beam melting technologies to engineer customized body replacement parts and provide physicians and dentists highly accurate bone models produced from their patients' CT scan data.

L-VMA's director, Dean Rotbart, met and toured the facility with Andy Christensen, Medical Modeling president, and Nicolas Flannery, Manufacturing Operations Manager.

Rotbart reports that Medical Modeling, named a finalist in L-VMA's 2007 Rapid Innovator of the Year awards, has outgrown its original facility and is now split between two nearby office-laboratories.

"Andy Christensen clearly understands the vast opportunity that awaits his company and others involved in the 'rapid' healthcare industry," Rotbart says. "Andy has pulled together a team of talented and visionary individuals and outfitted them with state-of-the art technologies to produce true, daily medical miracles."

Medical customization allows surgeons to more accurately place replacement joints and bone parts while reducing the amount of cutting and sawing and thereby speeding the procedures and their recovery.

"The smiling bus driver who greets you each morning may very well be the beneficiary of a mouthful of Medical Modeling-aided tooth implants, just as the Iraqi war veteran who is indistinguishable from all the other 27-year-olds on his basketball team can thank his Medical Modeling titanium skull implant for his outward normalcy," Rotbart says. "All around us, people are living longer, more productive, higher quality lives thanks to the work that Medical Modeling quietly pursues each day," he adds.

To read Rotbart's full report, visit www.l-vma.org.

To learn more about Medical Modeling and what it offers surgeons and health care providers, visit the company's website at www.medicalmodeling.com or contact Christensen at andy@medicalmodeling.com.

L-VMA is a volunteer organization dedicated to showcasing the benefits of rapid-prototyping, rapid-manufacturing and other additive fabrication technologies. To participate in one of its many annual promotional efforts on behalf of the 'Rapid' industry, contact Dean Rotbart at 1-866-541-RPRM (7776).

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