by Jasmine Budak, SickKids Foundation
INNOVATION, DISCOVERY, AND PHILANTHROPY
IN 2009,
© Sick Kids_Dr.Nabil Hussein
The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Canada got its first 3D printer, large and clunky by today’s standards, but high-end at the time. Few were more excited than Dr. Shi-Joon Yoo, a cardiac radiologist who saw the technology’s enormous potential to help surgeons study their patients’ hearts. With little more than a user’s manual, Dr. Yoo taught himself how to use the printer in his spare time. In those days, printing materials were rigid; the hearts were ceramiclike—and beautiful, Dr. Yoo recalls. But they also conveyed a lot of information, offering surgeons an exceptional view of the organ. They could hold it in their hand, see every angle, every valve, every unique defect. They would go into surgery with a better idea of what they’d find inside their patients.
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