For infants diagnosed with cranial deformities, early intervention can play an important role in supporting healthy skull development. Cranial helmet therapy is commonly used to gradually guide a baby’s head shape over time, but successful treatment depends on one critical starting point: accurate head measurement.

For many clinics, that measurement process has traditionally relied on plaster casting. While effective, plaster casting can be time consuming, uncomfortable, and stressful for both infants and families.

When ORTHOtechnik M4 in Austria began offering cranial helmet therapy, the team chose a different approach. Instead of adapting traditional casting methods, they built their workflow around digital 3D scanning from the start.

“We only started using head helmets five years ago, and we started out using
scanning technology exclusively. We never used plaster casts.”

  - Gerald Kastner, Head of Orthopedic Technology at ORTHOtechnik M4

This early commitment to digital workflows helped ORTHOtechnik M4 build a more efficient, patient-friendly process from the beginning.

Why Move Away from Traditional Casting?

Although the team had experience using plaster casting for hands and feet, applying the same method to infant head measurement raised immediate concerns.

Cranial helmet therapy requires accurate measurements, but it also requires a process that is fast, comfortable, and practical for infants, parents, and clinicians.
In this type of workflow, traditional casting can create several challenges:

• Discomfort for infants
• Added stress for parents
• Longer appointment times
• Potential for measurement inconsistencies

As orthopedic technician Hannah Sigl explains:

“I can’t imagine it being any other way, because just the idea of putting a cast
on a baby’s head doesn’t seem easy to me.”

Building the First Digital Workflow with EinScan H2

To address these challenges, ORTHOtechnik M4 built a fully digital workflow centered on 3D scanning and 3D printing. In the first phase of that process, the EinScan H2 became a key part of the clinic’s cranial helmet therapy workflow.

By capturing infant head data in as little as 30 seconds, 3D scanning helped make the measurement process faster, more comfortable, and easier to manage for both clinicians and families. That speed is especially important when working with infants, where long or uncomfortable procedures can quickly become difficult.

As orthopedic technician Hannah Sigl explains:

“It’s so simple today with 3D scanning or with a scanner. It works so smoothly, so
easily, and the children don’t cry.”

For parents, the shorter, non-contact process also helped reduce the stress of the appointment. One parent of a young patient described the experience this way:

“I find 3D measurement very practical, especially when it comes to small children. The process is very entertaining; it only takes a certain amount of time to hold their attention, and then it’s over. Especially with a child, I find that many things are complicated, and it was simply a brief relief that this wasn’t a long process.”

Transitioning to EinScan Medixa

While the EinScan H2 helped ORTHOtechnik M4 establish a reliable digital workflow, daily clinical use showed where the process could be improved further. The team wanted greater flexibility, easier operation, and better support for real-world scanning challenges, including slight patient movement during infant head scans.

That led to the transition to EinScan Medixa, a wireless 3D scanner designed specifically for medical and clinical scanning applications.

Key Improvements with EinScan Medixa

• Wireless and portable scanning: The compact, cable-free design makes setup easier and gives clinicians more freedom to move around the patient during scanning.

• Preset scan modes: Configured scanning parameters for different body parts help clinicians start scans faster without extensive manual setup.

• Customizable settings: Medixa also allows clinicians to adjust parameters when a specific patient, body area, or workflow requires more control.

• Improved handling of patient movement: Infant scanning can be challenging because patients may move during the scan. Medixa’s enhanced algorithms help compensate for slight movement and support more consistent scan results.

• Workflow integration: Scan data can be processed directly on the device and transferred into the next steps of the clinical workflow, including design and production.

Conclusion

At ORTHOtechnik M4, the transition from EinScan H2 to EinScan Medixa represents a natural evolution of an already digital workflow. Rather than changing how they work, Medixa further simplifies the process—making scanning more portable, more flexible, more intuitive, and more robust in daily clinical use.

For clinicians, this means greater efficiency. For patients and their families, it means a faster, easier, and more comfortable experience.

About ORTHOtechnik M4

As a part of the ORTHOtechnik family, ORTHOtechnik M4 provides customers with high-quality medical assistive devices, ranging from wheelchairs to rehabilitation tools to assist with walking, standing and sitting. They also produce custom orthoses and prosthesis in their own workshop with the highest standards. By integrating modern manufacturing technologies like 3D scanning and 3D printing, ORTHOtechnik M4 achieves personalized and precise adjustments for their patients.

Considering 3D Scanning for Orthotics and Prosthetics?

For O&P clinics, hospitals, and medical device teams, 3D scanning can help replace slow or uncomfortable manual measurement methods with a faster, digital workflow.

Afinia 3D can help you evaluate whether EinScan Medixa, EinScan H2, or another 3D scanner is the right fit based on your application, scan subject, accuracy needs, software workflow, and production process.