The Gartner Hype Cycle maps five phases as a technology matures: the innovation trigger; the peak of inflated expectations; the trough of disillusionment; the slope of enlightenment, and the plateau of productivity. Introducing new technology often begins with an exaggerated build up, as O&P saw with 3D-printed prosthetic hands, before the technology finds its real-world footing, where it seems O&P has now arrived.
The IEEE Spectrum story described those early media reports of children receiving their new prostheses as “painting a picture of an emerging high-tech utopia enabled by a technology straight out of Star Trek.” But, as Joe Johnson, CPO, CEO, Quorum Prosthetics, Colorado, told the magazine, it led to prosthetists taking a circumspect position about 3D printing for years.
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