Last year the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approved a low-intensity ultrasound system, known as Exogen, for use in the NHS on bone fractures that fail to heal after nine months. Now, Turkish industrial designer Deniz Karasahin wants to make that healing a more beautiful, and patient-friendly experience.

"The process started itself, somehow," Karasahin told Wired.co.uk of his Osteoid cast development. "I was asked to make a small informative presentation about 3D technologies at the Izmir Chamber of Commerce. At the time I was also following the growth of the industry very closely and wanted to contribute. The cast idea was the most promising area because it added the most benefit compared with contemporary applications."

3D printing hearts and livers might be in the early development stages, but 3D printing medical devices and parts has been ongoing for years—in 2013, iLab Haiti began using MakerBot printers to create umbilical cord clamps on the spot. And if anything is ripe for disruption, it's the sweaty, stinky, itchy plaster cast that has remained relatively unchanged for decades.

3D printing the cast itself is nothing new—there are plenty of designers experimenting with different geometric patterns and last year we featured Jake Evill's beautifully designed Cortex cast that behaves like a brace and is tailored to the individual from a 3D scan. It's washable, breathable, discreet and can be made denser in the areas round the fracture that need more support.

Karasahin's version looks very similar—albeit with a different geometric pattern—clinging close to the subject's skin and wrapping round their thumb. But there are a few key differences. "We share a more contemporary style but this style is also mainstream in the design world," notes Karasahin. "His form/pattern inspiration is geometric-based and also the geometric/algorithmic logic is related to the place of the injury. In my case the form/pattern inspiration is different—I was inspired by the pattern of spongy bone geometry because of its semiotic relation with a medical cast, and the logic behind my algorithm aims for an equally distributed stronger structural integrity of the cast."

Rather than snapping closed the Osteoid, made up of two pieces, also features a secondary, secure locking mechanism to ensure it doesn't open when in use. Of course the most obvious difference, is the proposal for an ultrasound port, where devices similar to Exogen's can be introduced.

"I read the clinical studies about this tech, and some of them were almost 20 years old," says Karasahin. "After talking with an orthopedist MD I learnt about the current application problems which prevent this tech from being widely used."

The most obvious of these, is how you reach the skin to place the ultrasound probes if it's wrapped up in a cast. Typically a hole is cut in the cast to allow a transducer to touch the skin where the fracture is. Karasahin explains that the site of the skin will also swell, causing the patient discomfort. With all the holes in the Osteoid, there's no chance of that.

Clinical studies have shown that the ultrasound waves promote bone healing by stimulating the production of growth factors and proteins that increase removal of old bone, and increase the production of new bone.

The designer has already been contacted by private and government-owned clinics in the US, looking to launch trials (the Osteoid is still at the concept stages right now).

"It is the medical industry that is the most excited—it is all positive," said Karasahin. "I also have received so many emails from people who are willing to put one on instantly."

The design has great promise, but there's a few things to remember. The Osteoid is being touted with a promise that, once hooked up to ultrasound for 20 minutes a day, it will help reduce the time it takes for the injury to heal by 38 percent. The heal rate for non-union fractures that are totally cut in two increases by 80 percent. Those figures are based on clinical trials already carried out separately.

Exogen, the ultrasound device given the okay by the NHS last year following an investigation by NICE, recommends patients receive 20-minute daily sessions they can administer themselves at home each day, speeding up healing by about 38 percent. The Osteoid is simply putting together two already well-established concepts—the 3D printed cast and ultrasound bone healing therapy.

The Exogen system is for non-union fractures, but the lengthy NICE report is very clear in its findings—it does not believe the device is suitable for any fractures that have failed to heal before nine months. This may be largely down to cost-efficiency. The only reason it is cost saving, is it can help prevent last-resort surgeries.

The NICE report concludes that the system, when applied to long bone fractures with non-union that have failed to heal after nine months, "shows high rates of fracture healing." It estimates this could deliver cost savings of "$1,963 per patient compared with current management, through avoiding surgery."

However, of use prior to that nine month stage, it stipulates that although there is some evidence of healing when used before the nine months: "There are substantial uncertainties about the rate at which bone healing progresses without adjunctive treatment between three and nine months after fracture, and about whether or not surgery would be necessary. These uncertainties result in a range of cost consequences, some cost-saving and others that are more costly than current management."

So it could be that using the device before nine months would be suitable one day—there simply isn't enough evidence to back up the measures as being worth the investment. Throw in the cost of a 3D printer and a 3D scanner, along with software and development time, and the NHS will probably tell you where to go. But as the costs of the printers themselves continue to plummet, and this is weighed up alongside the ease with which superior therapies can be delivered to a patient that is far happier with their breathable, comfortable Osteoid, we might see an updated NICE report in the future.

This story originally appeared on Wired UK.