3D-printed nails for aesthetic silicone prostheses.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The nail is a crucially important part that needs to be closely reproduced in aesthetic silicone prostheses. The traditional method of producing prosthetic nails is a laborious process often fraught with errors and rejects. In this article, additive manufacturing or 3D printing intervention was sought to make this process less time-consuming and more exacting. STUDY DESIGN AND TECHNIQUE: With a focus on finger prosthesis, the process involves reverse engineering a patient's hand using a 3D scanner to obtain a digital blue print for referencing. 3D models of the nail shapes were created using CAD software. Colors sampling is obtained using image processing software from 2D digital images. Using specifically the inkjet technology from Stratasys, batches of nails of different sizes and colors were printed, which were then used for manual adhesion to silicone finger prostheses. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: This article has demonstrated that 3D printing is able to produce nails of comparable quality with those produced by traditional methods in size, shape, curvature, and thickness. More consistent thickness, better size, and shape-matching using 3D files also minimize rejects and grinding time when finishing a prosthesis, leading to significant time savings. However, 3D-printed nails fall short in color match, surface texture, and life-likeness. Traditionally produced nails that are made using a more translucent grade of acrylic than that used in the 3D-printed nails are better able to reproduce the life-like coloration of the translucent human nail. The limitations encountered with 3D printing as applied to prosthetic nails production relate to camera settings, digital image color capture and display, differences in color system used in the printer and monitor, ambient lighting, and suitability of acrylic grade used with the proprietary 3D printing system for material translucency or opacity.

Factors associated with mobile health information seeking among Singaporean women.

This study examined effects of age and social psychological factors on women's willingness to be mobile health information seekers. A national survey of 1,878 Singaporean women was conducted to obtain information on women's mobile phone usage, experiences of health information seeking, and appraisals of using mobile phones to seek health information. Results showed that young, middle-aged, and older women exhibited distinct mobile phone usage behaviors, health information-seeking patterns, and assessments of mobile health information seeking. Factors that accounted for their mobile information-seeking intention also varied. Data reported in this study provide insights into mobile health interventions in the future.

The perception and intention to adopt female-focused healthcare applications (FHA): a comparison between healthcare workers and non-healthcare workers.

OBJECTIVE: To explore differences in perception and acceptance levels of Female-focused Healthcare Applications (FHA). This study will focus on the different demographic data between female healthcare and non-healthcare workers. METHOD: Questionnaires were used in a revised technology acceptance model entitled as the Female-focused Acceptance Model (FAM) to examine the perception and acceptance of the test subjects, using a quantitative method. RESULTS: Within Singapore 1071 females participated in the study (71.4% response rate). The sample comprised of 241 healthcare workers (HC) and 830 non-healthcare (NHC) workers. The questionnaires were distributed to participants, by research administrators across the country, such as the National University Hospital Women's Clinics and the National Healthcare Group polyclinics. Regression analyses were performed to explain how different predictors may be correlated to each other in terms of significance. Both groups of women who believe that FHA is easy to use are confident that it will have beneficiary outcomes (p<0.001) and intend to use FHA (HC: p=0.012, NHC: p<0.001). The HC group who were in education to the university level intend to use FHA (p=0.047). The NHC group who have a good impression of current healthcare technologies (p<0.001) or were in education to a higher level (p=0.025) intend to use FHA. NHC who are not influenced by their family and friend's views of FHA feel that the devices would be useful (p=0.013). NHC who are satisfied with current healthcare technologies (p=0.048), or have previous experience of using medical devices (p=0.033) think FHA would be easy to use. CONCLUSION: This study shows that FAM works well for detecting social variables which may influence "female" acceptance (with the R square values of the FAM ranging from 54% to 68%). It presents design implications for future FHA - The direct support from HC coupled with the user-friendly personal device ensures that the technology is an effective enabler for personal well-being and self-managed healthcare. In order to encourage women to adopt and use these applications, there is a need to communicate the potential usefulness of the applications to women. To encourage the pregnant women to use FHA (in the area of prenatal care), issues such as their experience with medical devices and social status should be considered. The findings and their implications presented here were obtained from a single study that targeted a possible user group in Singapore. Further research could be carried out in the future to access similar issues across broader cultural and social horizons.