University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine student Sarah Swanick (D.O., ’28) spent four months last semester creating a 3D-printed anatomical model of the pelvis, lumbar spine, and femur — not for a class or research project, but purely to understand pelvic anatomy more deeply.
The end result: Her 3D-printed pelvic model will be featured in the December issue of the Journal of Osteopathic Medicine after placing second in a national student competition at the American Osteopathic Association's Osteopathic Medical Education Conference, held in September in Nashville, Tennessee.
But Swanick said the greatest impact of the passion project at UNE’s medical school was the heightened understanding of anatomy the model lent her and many others. Medical school professors both at UNE and beyond asked her to share the model or present it to their classes.
The third-year medical student, who graduated from UNE with a degree in medical biology in 2023, began the project in January after encountering several clinical situations that made her want to satisfy her curiosity about how ligaments work.
“In a clinic shift, we had a patient who had a very interesting pelvis pain and one of my professors — Dr. (Kiran) Mangalam (D.O.) — explained how (the photos of) ligaments that we see in textbooks aren’t actually correct, they actually wrap all the way around the bone,” Swanick said. “So that made me think, ‘I don't know anything about this, and it seems super clinically relevant. I want to learn more about ligament attachments and see how they move.'"
Working over four months on her own time between classes and while studying for board exams, Swanick found 3D-printable anatomy files on Thingiverse and combined multiple models to create what she needed. She worked with Sophia Crockett-Current, manager of UNE's P.D. Merrill Makerspace on the Biddeford Campus, to print the components, visiting the makerspace 19 times between January and April.
"She's like, ‘I don't understand what the books are saying. I don't understand what these pictures are showing me. I want to understand what's going on and so I need to just be able to see it happen,’" Crockett-Current recalled. The real challenge came in making the model functional. That led Swanick to seek out other mentors to help explain how the ligaments attach to the pelvis to ensure anatomical accuracy.
Medical student draws praise for developing 3D-printed pelvic model to improve anatomical understanding