CAD CAM Responses #2

CAD CAM Responses #2

Mark, well thought out posting. You have hit the nail on the head as to why I

quit using CAD CAM. The hands of the prosthetist just can't be eliminated on

difficult cases. Getting everyone to agree will be even more difficult.

Terry Supan


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Hi Mark,


I think you are right on. There is a human factors aspect to CAD/CAM that

is not fully appreciated by those who design the systems. There needs to be

a better blending of hand manipulation with digitizing. The fingers and

eyes have a wonderfully complex neurologic interconnection in the CNS that

current CAD/CAM systems haven't exploited. Using current CAD is like trying

to play the piano while wearing fingerless mittens. Perhaps some type of

virtual glove combined with a plaster cast?? I would not have been so

critical of CAD/CAM prior to my residency, but now after sculpting for

months, I would find it very hard to just use a mouse. Maybe along with

this there could be some simple graphics to show crudely how pressures might

change as material is removed and added. Not a true pressure prediction, but

a heuristic. One mistake I have been learning the hard way is when I

start playing too much with reductions on the lateral posterior side of AK

limb models to acheive better suction on IC sockets, I wind up forcing the

ischium out of its pocket. Then I have to go back a step and take another

run at it.


On the attendance - I would love to attend and join CAD/CAM, but all the

societies have their meetings scheduled during the same time slot. Maybe

this could be changed???


Ed Neumann

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