October 12, 2016 | ProgressTH Microscopy in the lab is very important, especially for dermatology when examining samples from a patient to determine the cause of an ailment.

For technicians at Bangkok's Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health (QSNICH) if they want to document anything they see under the microscope, they need to find one of only a handful of mounts and professional cameras in the entire hospital to do so.

So we 3D printed out a smartphone-microscope mount we customized from Thingiverse. We uploaded the modified version including the SketchUp file we used to do the modifying on Thingiverse here.

Unexpectedly, not only did it allow lab technicians to document their findings easier as well as share them instantly with doctors remotely, we found out while they tested it that it helped open up the conversation in the lab when doctors, technicians, and patients were present together. That's because with the large screen on most modern smartphones, you no longer need to take turns peering into the eyepiece of the microscope. Everyone can see everything at the same time on the screen, and healthcare professionals can easily point out and describe details for everyone.

Follow ProgressTH.org on Facebook here or on Twitter here.