Instruments of war printed in 3-D have fired their first shots, but never fear: a tool of peace – a shockingly inexpensive stethoscope — has been designed by a Palestinian-Canadian physician.
I already have an AR15 but I want a 3D printed "ghost gun" just to piss of the #NotOneMore / #WhateverItTakes / #gunsense dummies.
— ScottInSC (@ScottInSC) September 5, 2015
Dr. Tarek Loubani worked as an emergency physician at the Gaza Strip’s main hospital Shifa during the 2012 Israeli incursion, when medical facilities were suffering from severe supply shortages.
“I had to hold my ear to the chests of victims because there were no good stethoscopes, and that was a tragedy, a travesty, and unacceptable,” Loubani told the Chaos Communications Camp in Zehdenick, Germany.
The new stethoscope is reportedly comparable to the market standard, 3M’s Littmann Cardiology III, which runs between $150 and $200.
“I have used it on many of my patients in the emergency department and can attest to the fidelity of the sound,” Dr. Jonathan Dreyer, research director of emergency medicine at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario, told the Associated Press, adding that the tool is “as good or better” than the Littmann Cardiology III.
#3Dprinting in dental applications are growing at 18% a year & making it the largest share in the medical field to benefit from 3D printing
— 3D Medical Devices (@piratemedical) March 12, 2015
The Gila Project stethoscope is available for free download online, even though research and development of the device cost Loubani, who self funded, more than $10,000. The cost of a single 3-D printed stethoscope is expected to be no higher than $2.
“The goal here is self-sufficiency, and so the plan for Gaza and other underserved areas is to have 3D printers there,” Dr. Loubani was quoted as saying by Wired Magazine.
