Forgot Password

Forgot Password

Forgot Password

Innovative Solutions For Surgical and Educational Applications │ Med Dimensions

Innovative Solutions For Surgical and Educational Applications │ Med Dimensions

ANIMAL INNOVATIONS SHOW - EPISODE 142 - MED DIMENSIONS

Innovative Solutions For Surgical and Educational Applications │ Med Dimensions

Educating, preparing, and training the next generation of surgeons and veterinarians is a crucial step in ensuring the great future of the animal healthcare industry. It is necessary to provide students and new clinicians with fresh solutions to prepare them for the rigorous field. 

Sean Bellefeuille, a bilingual biomedical engineer completing his doctorate in Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University, recognized and acknowledged the need for better education and training. 

According to him, 

“We know there’s a huge problem right now with new grads where they’re not confident in particular procedures or skills. So we try and create these tools to help them adapt.” 

Hence, the reason why he co-founded Med Dimensions. 

 

Med Dimensions: The Surgical and Educational Sides

Innovative Solutions For Surgical and Educational Applications │ Med Dimensions

Med Dimensions is a company founded by Sean and a fellow pet-loving engineer, Will Byron, during their time at Rochester Institute of Technology. It was mainly born from their similar interest in 3D printing ─ which led to the creation of a campus club. 

“We had just started this 3D printing club where we were trying to do different types of biomedical projects, working on some prosthetics with animals and some devices on humans to help them out.”

The club led by Sean and Will designed and printed various anatomical and biomedical models, projects, and prosthetics for animals and humans. They created these models to help students and surgeons practice better. 

Med Dimensions was born shortly after, with a clear mission of wanting to help and offering innovative solutions. 

“We take 2D problems and create 3D solutions.”

 

The company takes a standard 2D Medical image and transforms it into a 3D near replica model of the patient’s anatomy. Med Dimensions create high-quality operative models that students and surgeons can use for practice or reference. 

Aside from the surgical applications, Med Dimensions also has an educational side to it. They build educational trainers and patient-specific cutting guides. 

The company offers educational models that the students and faculty can manipulate to practice techniques and further build confidence. 

 

The Future of Med Dimensions

Innovative Solutions For Surgical and Educational Applications │ Med Dimensions

“We want to focus on surgery and education. They go hand in hand, but they also have their differences.”

In the beginning, Med Dimensions mainly focused on the surgical side. Though, not long after, they recognized the varying side and the need for educational tools and models. 

For the surgical side, the company wishes to explore more on implants. For the educational side of the company, Med Dimensions wants to dip its toes into virtual reality. 

According to Sean, they wanted to include AR or VR situations. Here, they can include in the virtual reality the textures and animations that are not in the physical models. 

 

If you want your 2D problem to have an innovative 3D solution, you can try out the services and products of Med Dimensions. You can visit them at med-dimensions.com!

Have suggestions for who we should interview next?

Send us a message at [email protected]!

Sean: Hi, my name is Sean Bellefeuille, and you are tuned in to The Animal Innovations Show.

Chris: Start us off, tell us who you are and how you’re innovating and helping animals.

Sean: I am a second-year— well, I’m about to be a third year student at Cornell University in the Vet program.

And I co-founded Med Dimensions during my undergraduate time at RIT. The Rochester Institute of Technology.

And basically, what we do is we take 2D problems and create 3D solutions. So, we work mostly in surgery and education. 

On the surgical side, we use 3D printing and other technologies to create patient-specific devices to improve surgery and outcomes.

On the educational side, we create simulation models so that students, even clinicians, residents, can practice different types of procedures, gain experience, gain confidence.

We know there’s a huge problem right now with new grads where they’re not confident particular procedures or skills.

So, we try and create these tools to help them with that.

We actually started the company about 4 or 5 years ago. We started working on this project and we kind of built it from there.

I decided I wanted to pursue veterinary school, in part because of some of the work that we did. And it’s been a great experience so far.

Chris: Yeah, maybe give us an example of how you’re doing this. You mentioned the surgery side of things, so, how does it work in practice?

Sean: So, basically, we were at RIT. A local veterinary surgeon reached out and he had a really difficult orthopedic case.

He had a scan, a CT scan, but he wanted to see something in three dimensions, something that he could touch and actually practice on.

So, he was like, “Can you 3D print a model?” And we had just started this 3D printing club where we were trying to do different types of biomedical projects, working on some prosthetics with animals and some devices with humans to help them out.

So, we were able to present Dr. Hoffman, the surgeon, with the actual 3D printed the bone model that represented his patient’s anatomy.

So, he was able to actually practice on it, cut the bone like he was going to do during the surgery. That was super helpful for him.

Chris: Yeah, because I can imagine that’s going to be really hard if you’re a surgeon, you’re just looking at a picture, and, yeah, you have a plan going in, but you’re still only looking at a picture, and what’s in front of you is not the exact thing, right.

As you mentioned, it’s in three dimensions. So, that has to be really slick, like you said, that they can now see something ahead of time, view it from multiple angles, before they end up actually trying to do the surgery.

Sean: Yeah, it’s a different way of looking at things. Scans are great, and CT scans in particular, they give you almost like three-dimensional data in some respects because you can look at slice by slice, but it’s not the same as having the actual bone that you’re going to operate on in your hand before doing the surgery and being able to practice.

So, that’s really the value that adds.

Chris: So, now what kind of material do you guys use for this 3d printing? I mean, I’ve heard of all sorts of crazy things that they’re doing these days.

Sean: So, when we work with these kinds of devices, we can take it a step further and make sure that the materials are biocompatible, they can be sterilized.

So, we use different types of resins and stuff like that for those types of cases.

Chris: So, it sounds like not only are you guys creating a model, but you’re also creating if I could call it—you call it a template, but I’m thinking like a—guide or something like that that the surgeon can actually use on the real patient.

Sean: Yeah, exactly.

So, we kind of try and take it a step further each time. So, the ultimate goal will be that one day we receive a scan, a model, we print out a model, we print out the guide to have the perfect surgical execution, and then we print out a custom implant that is made perfectly for that patient.

Chris: So, then how would this work in the real world, right?

So—you know, a veterinarian anywhere in the country, right. Basically, sends you a picture, you guys create a model and—what—ship it overnight to them, kind of a thing.

Sean: Yeah, so it definitely depends on the case, but the workflow would be something like a vet or surgeon reaches out to us, hey, I have a case. Okay, great.

We send over a portal for them to upload the scan, it’s secure. We want to make sure to maintain patient confidentiality and security.

From there, we take it, put it into our software, it fits out the model or the guide that’s desired. We print it overnight and then ships back to them.

Depending on what’s desired, we typically will ship between two and five days.

Chris: Yeah, interesting, now, you also mentioned that did the education side of this come before or after the surgical side?

I mean, I’m curious which came first?

Sean: So, the surgical side definitely came first, and that’s what we initially concentrated on a lot, but we kind of saw this need on the veterinary side for educational tools and models.

Chris: So, what does the future look like? Where do you plan to take Med Dimensions? It sounds like you’re exploring and learning about all sorts of different uses of this.

Sean: So, I think we still want to really push on those two pillars, the surgery and the education. They kind of go hand in hand, but they also kind of have their differences.

On the surgical side, we really want to get into the implants. On the educational side, we really want to push the simulation models to the next step.

So, including AR or VR situations where you have the goggles on and you have a model in front of you and the different textures or the different animations that we can’t make on a model, on a physical model, we can add that with virtual reality and stuff like that to have real training systems.

Chris: So, if people want to learn more about Med Dimensions and immerse themselves in this, where can they go?

Sean: So, our website is MED-DIMENSIONS.COM and then Med Dimensions on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, all of our social media.

Chris: Awesome, well, as we wrap up the show here, Sean is a great example of just somebody that had an idea, recognized an opportunity.

So, maybe you’re listening or watching and you’re thinking, I have an idea that would help animals.

Or maybe you know of a profit that would help animals. We’d love to know about it. We’d love to have you on the show.

So, just go to INNOVATIONS.SHOW and you can apply to come on the show. And don’t forget, go sign up to be a Dooberteer.

DOOBERT.COM, where you can be a foster or transporter, so many different ways that you can volunteer to help our furry friends.

And Sean, thank you so much for coming on. I really enjoyed it. I’m really excited to see what you’re doing and what the future looks like.

Sean: Thank you so much for having me, this was a blast.

Recent Posts

Leave A Comment

Topics

Share this blog post

Related Posts

Sustainable Dog and Cat Treats Made From Upcycled Ingredients │ Shameless Pets

Sustainable Dog and Cat Treats From Upcycled Ingredients │ Shameless Pets

vTably from Sylvester.ai: An App that Uses AI for Feline Pain Assessment

Tably from Sylvester.ai: An App that Uses AI for Feline Pain Assessment

Original Crockpet Diet by Dr. Ruth Roberts Supports Pet Healing

Real Food That Supports Pet Healing | The Original Crockpet Diet

Facebook Youtube Instagram Linkedin Twitter

Get Involved

At Doobert you can choose how you want to help the hundreds of organizations we serve.

Transport

Foster

Lost Pet Support

Pet Photography

LEARN MORE

Special Thanks to

Case management ideation from Dallas Pets Alive! and Spay Neuter Network

© 2022 Doobert.com | PRIVACY POLICY | SITEMAP