Great Publicity

A medical marvel is always great publicity for the institution that produces it.  Take, for example, this case.  A surgeon at the Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville Kentucky used a 3D printer to build a model of a child’s defective heart so he could determine how to operate on it safely.  It was a novel use of the printer and creative medicine.  The hospital can justifiably take pride in the breakthrough and the publicity puts it near the forefront of medicine where researchers are building body parts out of human tissue.  Moreover, it is good PR because it demonstrates what the hospital and its surgeons can do — a plus for worried patients and parents.  Hospitals have never been slow to take marketing advantage of the breakthroughs produced in their wards.  It is tried and true technique and still best.