3-D printing has been documented as an innovation that’s being rapidly deployed in the medical field.  Doctors and researchers have been creating intrinsically realistic models of organs, bones, appendages and sometimes, implanting them into patients.  In 2012, University of Michigan doctors implanted a splint to hold open a 3-month-old child’s airway tube.  They published their results in the New England Journal of Medicine and opened the gates for others to follow their lead.  Created in the 1980’s, 3-D printing involves layering substrates in a three-dimensional pattern from inputted computer data and has swiftly invaded medical offices and research labs.   Not only is 3-D printing innovative and eye catching for medical doctors and researchers, but also, it’s fun to play with.

Although 3-D printing may eventually lead to groundbreaking medical achievements such as organ replication or DNA transplantation, it is still in the beginning stages of application in medicine as many doctors fiddle around with their design inputs for the printers.  Much like a challenging puzzle to be conquered, the design process is sometimes more rewarding to the user than the actual product.

SOLS, a tech company in New York City, allows doctors to create 3-D printed insoles and shoes for people by scanning their feet from an iPad or Android tablet.  SOLS then runs a series of algorithms, taking into account height, weight, lifestyle, and other data, in order to create the final product.  The application is well designed to provide an engaging experience for doctors and patients.  This information is collected from theses interactions and repeated hundreds, if not thousands of times, and then sent to servers to analyze for patterns using predictive modeling algorithms.  Although 3-D printing is an innovative disruption into traditional customizable orthotics, big data is the real prize.

Companies are determined today to find patterns and answers by analyzing large collectives of data.  Based off those analyses, they implement changes and innovations to better serve customers or to make processes more efficient.  Health care companies are also investing large amounts of resources to create predictive models based off of the analytics of big data.  The data, however, isn’t cheap.  And what adds to the difficulty is convincing doctors and patients to give up their data.  SOLS and other tech companies have bridged this gap by implementing a modification of game theory.

Game theory, game mechanics, or gamification, approach consumers using empathy driven models to interact, motivate, feedback, and redirect toward an experience.  That experience is the goal the user must believe is an achievement worth their time (and data) and what drives them toward that goal leverages the techniques of gamification.  Patients have a natural tendency toward innovative technology in health care, and, therefore, 3-D printing is a natural draw.  The path toward obtaining a 3-D printed insole creates a feedback loop to patients and retention toward their doctor, rewarding them with a customized impression of an achievement badge.  The doctor and patients are both engaged in a well-designed experience, providing meaningful socialization in the doctor-patient relationship.  However, broken into it’s lesser parts, the path to creating a 3-D printed insole is simply just a series of tasks to be completed, and the information of how these tasks are completed are funneled back to the company as data to be analyzed.

Gamification in medicine, whether by design or by chance, may alter the relationship between patients, doctors, and health care companies.  As improving patients’ health care is still doctors’ shared goal, the boundaries of ethical data collection continue to weigh on all stakeholders as companies present disruptive technologies and apply new strategies in health care.  3-D printing has a lot of excitement surrounding its possibilities for application in medicine and the data it could generate.  However, gamification, although providing meaningful experiences for patients, may cross ethical boundaries in medicine involving patient consent, data collection, and usage.  Doctors must be weary and always keep the patient’s well-being above all else. However, even doctors may not be aware of certain gamification techniques being applied to them.

Wenjay Sung is a podiatrist.