The 3-D printers take the hospital a step closer to changing health care with the ability to manufacture prototypes of medical devices and equipment for testing and clinical purposes. Holston says that 3-D printers will have a significant impact on health care in the future and will be able to build everything from real-time support devices to organs.

"For us in the lab, 3-D printing is about helping us to produce prototypes for new devices and ideas," says Holston. "If we didn't use 3-D printers it would take us a lot longer by having a lot of people do a lot of the work."


The printers make moveable objects, which means that when the printer produces an object it has the potential to move and be connected. The printers are currently part of the prototyping shop located in the lab and have not been implemented in the hospital yet. "They're going to make their way to the hospital eventually but there's a lot that has to occur for most people to use them on a real day-to-day basis," says Holston.

Changing health care is not the only reason Intermountain created the lab, many companies go to them with devices and ask how they can test it and find out if it works well.

"The lab has allowed us to experiment with things that we might not otherwise have been able to do," says Holston. "It allows us to try things that we don't 100 percent know are going to succeed."

It is noted that Intermountain is among the most technologically savvy hospital systems, which traces back to the 1970s when Dr. Homer Warner started to think about how computers can help clinicians make better decisions. “From that time it has just been an ongoing belief that these things can help us deliver care,” says Holston. “They don't relieve us from the responsibilities of physicians, nurses and other caregivers but they certainly help us do the job and do it well.”

There is no denying that Intermountain is very technologically advanced, but it does not stand alone. Northfield Hospital and Clinics in Minnesota, for example, is one of a few regional health care facilities to have the next generation in fluoroscope technology. It recently purchased a Luminos Agile with CR radiography in order to get better X-ray images, meet the needs for growing volumes and provide better patient care.

Even though Northfield is a small hospital, many people from other states go to it for site visits because not many hospitals in the area have that technology in place yet.

"Northfield hospital likes to remain state-of-the-art and be able to offer top quality care," says Sandra Mulford, director of diagnostic imaging at Northfield Hospital. "Even though we are a small organization, patients in our community do not have to drive to the greater twin cities area, they can stay local and stay with their family and hometown."

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