3D-printed cast looks cool and heals bones faster..

A 3D-printed cast with an ultrasound device heals bones almost 40 percent faster.

Turkish industrial designer Deniz Karasahin created a 3D-printed cast patterned like lattice. The cool cast named Osteoid looks more like a fashion statement than a healing gadget, but besides being super comfortable, it has an ultrasound device to make bones heal faster.

In an interview with Fast Company, Dr Michael Hausman, who works at Mount Sinai Hospital and did some of the original research into ultrasound for bone healing, thinks the new cast, which won the A'Design Award Competition in the 3D-printed forms and products design category, will work – and two studies published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery also confirm that ultrasound speeds the bone healing process.

Combining the two technologies could revolutionise the world of orthopedics. But it’s not that easy, Osteoid production costs are expensive, so we may need to wait a bit before saying goodbye forever to itchy and smelly casts.