[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2024\/07\/3d-printing-program\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2024\/07\/3d-printing-program\/","headline":"How the 3D Printing Program at UPMC Helped Harper Get a New Heart","name":"How the 3D Printing Program at UPMC Helped Harper Get a New Heart","description":"

Since its creation in 2016, the UPMC 3D printing program has become a valuable tool in creating virtual and physical models for surgical planning.<\/p>","datePublished":"2024-07-15","dateModified":"2025-03-19","author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/pediatrics","name":"Pediatrics","url":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/pediatrics","sameAs":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/pediatrics\/","parentOrganization":"UPMC"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"UPMC HealthBeat","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/GettyImages-182157308.jpg","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/GettyImages-182157308.jpg","height":867,"width":1999},"url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2024\/07\/3d-printing-program\/","about":["Health Topics A-Z","Heart and Vascular Health"],"wordCount":2437,"articleBody":"When Harper Struntz first saw the 3D model of her original heart, it shocked her.\u201cI had just woken up from a nap, and I was like, ‘Oh, my god! What is that?’\u201d says Harper, a 9-year-old from Frostburg, Md. \u201cI was about to call my nurse in and say, ‘Someone cut themselves open!’\u201dHarper had a heart transplant at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh on March 7, 2024. After her surgery, the 3D Printing Program at UPMC printed out a life-sized physical model of her original heart.Months earlier, the 3D printing team played a key role in Harper’s case.Doctors had two potential options for a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) that would help keep Harper alive until she could get a transplant. So, they enlisted UPMC\u2019s 3D Printing Program to create a virtual model of Harper’s heart to determine which LVAD to use. Her surgeons also used the model to plan the LVAD surgery.It’s just one example of the 3D Printing Program’s impact on patient care at UPMC.A Humble BeginningThe 3D Printing Program at UPMC began with a \u201cbright-eyed, bushy-tailed resident\u201d and a dream.At least, that’s how the aforementioned resident \u2014 Anish Ghodadra, MD, interventional radiologist and founder and medical director of the 3D Printing Program \u2014 describes it.Before coming to UPMC, Dr. Ghodadra had a background in biomedical engineering. He worked as a device engineer at a startup making devices to treat degenerative disc disease in the spine\u00a0before ultimately deciding to pursue medicine.Dr. Ghodadra was working as a resident in UPMC’s Interventional Radiology Department in 2016 when he had an idea.\u201cI was exposed to this new world of imaging, and at some point, it just kind of clicked,\u201d he says. \u201c’Maybe we can use 3D printing to try to take what we look at every day on a screen and then print a physical object out of it.’\u201dAt the time, some hospitals were using 3D printing to create models of patient anatomy for surgical planning and practice. But the printers and raw materials were expensive, and the printers needed frequent maintenance.\u201cI was looking at how to make 3D printing more affordable and more practical at the point of care,\u201d Dr. Ghodadra says.Luckily, around that time, multiple manufacturers came out with high-quality 3D printers that were less expensive and less temperamental. Dr. Ghodadra received grants from The Beckwith Institute and the UPMC Department of Radiology to purchase a couple of 3D printers.\u201cThey gave me a small space to work in, and I just kind of started tinkering,\u201d Dr. Ghodadra says. “I started looking at well, first, how do I even turn a CT scan, an MRI, or an ultrasound into a visible 3D model? And what can the printer do and not do?\u201dA Growing ProgramIn the beginning, Dr. Ghodadra was the only member of the 3D printing team. And on top of that work, he was still doing his day job in interventional radiology. This meant coming in early, staying late, and working weekends to get the program off the ground.Dr. Ghodadra’s background in engineering and medicine helped him learn the ins and outs of 3D printing technology. But he also had to get the word out to surgeons.\u201cI was basically talking to anybody and everybody who was listening and running out with models constantly,\u201d he says. \u201cI always had a model of some kind in my hand to show somebody in case I ran into a surgeon in the elevator. (I) had my elevator pitch ready to go \u2014 literally, sometimes.\u201dIn the early days of the program, Dr. Ghodadra was creating one or two models a month. But as word of mouth grew, so did the program. The team now includes three full-time engineers alongside Dr. Ghodadra.The program now makes around 50 models each month, and the first quarter of 2024 marked their three busiest months on record.\u201cWe work across every subspecialty in the hospital,\u201d says Elliott Hammersley, lead biomedical engineer of the 3D printing team. “Any surgical specialty that you can think of, we’ve probably worked with before.\u201dThe 3D Printing Program demonstrated its capabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. When COVID-19 testing kits were in short supply, the team designed and printed 100,000 nasopharyngeal swabs to test for COVID-19. They worked with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to get the swabs approved to test for COVID-19.\u201cThat was an exciting and humbling experience,\u201d Dr. Ghodadra says. \u201cWe were able to pivot our entire operation and meet this need in real time, take workers who were displaced by the shutdowns, and have them work the factory floor to reach so many patients so quickly.\u201cWhen all was said and done, 62,000 patients were swabbed with the swabs that otherwise may not have been able to get a COVID test.\u201dA Valuable ToolDr. Ghodadra says he doesn’t sell his models \u2014 they sell themselves because of their value to surgeons and patients.He remembers the first 3D model he ever created at UPMC. It was for a patient who had a benign bone tumor in his elbow. Nearby nerves made the tumor tricky to remove, so Dr. Ghodadra created a model to help the surgeon plan the procedure.\u201cSitting down with the family, showing them the model, and showing them how we were going approach treating that tumor, you were able to see the light bulb go off in the mom\u2019s eyes,\u201d Dr. Ghodadra says. \u201cThey truly understood what we were going to do, the challenges around what we were going to do, and the explanation of why we were taking the approach that we were going to take.\u201cThere’s nothing that can replace that experience for patients and families. Patients can really participate in their care.\u201dThe process of creating a 3D model begins with a request from a surgeon. A member of the 3D printing team then asks the surgeon what they need from the model. They can adapt the model depending on the surgeon’s needs.After that, they take all the high-quality imaging available of the patient \u2014 CT, MRI, or ultrasound \u2014 and turn it into a virtual 3D model. This requires going slice by slice through the imaging and tracing out the anatomy.\u201cIt can take as little as five or 10 minutes for something simple like a model of bone,” Dr. Ghodadra says. “But something complicated like facial trauma, kidney tumor, or brain lesions can take hours. You need highly trained individuals who know what they’re looking at to identify that anatomy accurately and use all the engineering tools to do it quickly and efficiently.\u201dAfter the team has created the virtual 3D model, a board-certified radiologist reviews it to ensure everything is accurate. Only then does the actual printing occur. The program has 14 3D printers, and they can utilize different printers depending on the specific needs of the model.\u201cThe difference between a successful and accurate print versus a failed print is in that planning around the physics and engineering of 3D printing and picking the right printing technology, printing parameters, the right materials, the right orientation, and supporting structures within the model,\u201d Dr. Ghodadra says.The time this takes can vary depending on the specific model. But it ends with a valuable tool: a 3D model that has the potential to save someone’s life.Someone like Harper Struntz.A Scary SicknessHarper had just begun the third grade when she started feeling sick all the time.\u201cI was feeling lightheaded, always cold and hot, always dry heaving, nauseous,\u201d she says.Her parents made several trips to her pediatrician and to urgent care. They even took Harper to the emergency department near their home.\u201cEverybody told us that she was just sick, it was a really bad stomach bug that would run its course,\u201d says Alison Drew, Harper’s mother.Despite those assurances, Harper’s condition continued to worsen. She was hardly eating, throwing up often, and losing weight.A few days after their trip to the emergency department, Alison says that Harper \u201clooked like death.\u201d Alison and her husband Chad took her back to the emergency department, where tests showed her liver enzymes were 10 times higher than normal. She was in liver failure.They transferred Harper to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at UPMC Children’s Hospital. The next day, Alison and Chad met with a hepatologist, who told them Harper might need a liver transplant.While Harper was undergoing an abdominal ultrasound, the technician noticed that the lower chambers of Harper’s heart had become enlarged. Based on that recognition, the UPMC Children’s team ordered an echocardiogram.Harper had dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart’s left ventricle (the lower left chamber) becomes enlarged. Dilated cardiomyopathy can affect the heart’s ability to pump blood to the body.\u201cWhen the left ventricle is enlarged, it transitions from a cone shape to the shape of a softball,\u201d says Matthew Zinn, DO, pediatric cardiologist, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. \u201cThis change results in poor function of the heart muscle, which\u00a0ultimately led to all of Harper’s presenting symptoms.\u201cIt was fortunate that we had a very thorough abdominal exam that led to the diagnosis.\u201dHarper was in heart failure and would need lifesaving intervention in the form of an LVAD.\u201cIt was terrifying because we didn’t know what was going to happen,\u201d Alison says.A Lifesaving ModelIn heart failure, an LVAD takes over the work of pumping blood to the body, often serving as a bridge to transplant. Because of Harper’s age and size, her doctors had two LVAD options: the standard pediatric LVAD (the Berlin Heart EXCOR\u00ae) or the standard adult LVAD (the HeartMate 3).\u201cShe was right on the borderline,\u201d Dr. Zinn says.If she received the Berlin Heart EXCOR\u00ae, Harper would have to stay in the hospital until she received a transplant. The HeartMate 3 would allow her to wait for the transplant out of the hospital.Dr. Zinn decided to do a fit test to see if the HeartMate 3 would fit in Harper’s chest. So, the UPMC Children’s team enlisted the 3D Printing Program to create a digital 3D model of Harper’s heart. They then took a digital file of the HeartMate 3 and overlaid it on her heart and chest scans\u00a0to see if it would fit.\u201cThat was an intense morning,\u201d Elliott says. \u201cBecause she needs a heart transplant. She needs an LVAD. Can we fit it? Yes or no?\u201dUltimately, the fit test showed that Harper could receive the HeartMate 3.\u201cThat allowed us to move forward with the LVAD that would potentially provide her greater ability to rehab physically, nutritionally, and mentally,\u201d Dr. Zinn says.Harper\u2019s surgical team also used the data from the fit test to plan the procedure. Harper became the youngest patient ever at UPMC Children\u2019s to receive the HeartMate 3.A New HeartHarper went on the heart transplant waiting list in December 2023. In March 2024, she received a successful heart transplant at UPMC Children’s.After Harper’s transplant, Maureen Heneghan, MS, CCLS, a child life specialist working with Harper and her family, mentioned the 3D printing team. The possibility occurred to her that they could create a physical model of Harper’s old heart.\u201cOnce we heard about the 3D print, we thought that was awesome,\u201d Alison says.Maureen enlisted the 3D Printing Program to produce a 3D model of Harper\u2019s heart from her pre-LVAD images.\u201cI think it is an awesome connection to allow kids to see what their heart looked like, why it required treatment, and then be able to keep a piece of their old heart with them forever,\u201d Maureen says.\u201cThis was a great full-circle moment,\u201d Elliott says.\u201cIt\u2019s rewarding. I got to be part of the team that helped put the bridge to transplant in. And then after the transplant, I got to give her the heart that she lost.\u201dThe model is a one-to-one recreation of Harper’s old heart, which was almost double the size it should have been.\u201cIt creeps me out, that it was this big inside of me,\u201d Harper says. \u201cBut knowing it’s not that big anymore is helpful.\u201dA Bright FutureAfter her transplant, Harper is healthy again. She returned home in April but came back to western Pennsylvania in June for the Dr. Bill Neches Heart Camp for Kids. UPMC Children’s hosts the camp each year at YMCA Camp Kon-O-Kwee Spencer in Fombell, Pa.\u201cHarper has an amazing personality,\u201d Dr. Zinn says. \u201cShe wants to do everything and doesn’t want you to hold her back. She’s ready to go. Her personality is what pushes her forward.\u201dHarper has a bright future, and so does the 3D Printing Program at UPMC.The program recently moved into a new, updated, centralized location at UPMC Presbyterian, which will allow the program to continue to expand. Within the new space, there are three \u201cclean rooms\u201d that will allow the team to create sterile, patient-specific surgical tools.\u201cThese can actually help the surgeons do the surgery,\u201d Dr. Ghodadra says. \u201cSo, we can sit down with the surgeon, virtually perform a surgery, plan different aspects of where we’re going to cut bone, for example, and then design the guides that help them then execute the plan that we created virtually.\u201cNo more guessing. No more eyeballing it. It\u2019s precision surgery.\u201dAs technology continues to advance, so will the program’s capabilities. Dr. Ghodadra says the team will soon create patient-specific implants. For example, they can create a 3D plate to contour to the skull of a patient undergoing a cranioplasty.\u201cLooking back, never in my wildest dreams did I think we would be where we are today,\u201d Dr. Ghodadra says. \u201cI’d always hoped we would get here. But to truly be at the spot where you’ve got this wonderful team that I work with, this beautiful new space, and it\u2019s no longer this tool searching for an application, a hammer looking for a nail. It has become the hammer for a lot of procedures.\u201cIt’s been a very humbling journey to see us grow from that one little printer in a closet to this fleet we have now. And every day, there’s new applications. It never gets old; it keeps me getting out of bed and coming into work every day.\u201dLearn more about the 3D Printing Program at UPMC."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2024","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2024\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"07","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2024\/\/07\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"How the 3D Printing Program at UPMC Helped Harper Get a New Heart","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2024\/07\/3d-printing-program\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]