3D printing has emerged as a transformative technology in healthcare in recent years. The number of U.S. hospitals with centralized 3D printing facilities for point-of-care manufacturing has exploded, from just three in 2010 to 113 in 2019.
With 3D printers now capable of making objects measured in microns, or millionths of a meter, the technology has led to “new designs that before were impossible,” says Joseph DeSimone, professor of translational medicine and chemical engineering at Stanford University and co-founder of the digital manufacturing company Carbon.
Healthcare institutions still face challenges with reimbursement and regulation of the quickly evolving technology, according to the American Hospital Association. But even amid regulatory ambiguity, “there’s increasing pull from the healthcare industry” for more 3D printing innovations, DeSimone says.
Here are some current use cases and possible future uses for medical 3D printing.
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Today’s Medical 3D Printing Use Cases
Made to Order: 3D printing has enabled bespoke digital manufacturing, products that can be made to fit a patient’s specific needs and anatomy. “One way that 3D printing is advancing the field of healthcare is its ability to make things that are specific and matched to a patient,” says Megan Malara, director of the Medical Modeling, Materials and Manufacturing (M4) Division at The Ohio State University.
Customized medical devices include prosthetics and implants as well as surgical instruments. They can range from dental products (among the first medically approved uses of 3D technology) to spinal implants and hip and shoulder replacements. “The bespoke nature of 3D printing is game-changing,” DeSimone says.
Model Building: Point-of-care manufacturing involves 3D printing not only surgical tools but also anatomical models that help in surgical diagnosis and planning as well as communication with patients and surgical teams. Among surgeons who have used 3D-printed models in the U.S., 94 percent said the model was a valuable tool for presurgical planning.
At The Ohio State University, the M4 Division uses 2D CT and MRI scans to build a 3D representation of the relevant part of a patient’s anatomy. The team then prints 3D models that can re-create the current anatomy and represent the postsurgical goal. As a result, the surgeon holds a physical model rather than relying on a representation on a flat screen.
“Surgeons are very tactile, so the ability to have something in their hands to plan their approach and communicate with the rest of the surgical team is a really valuable tool,” Malara says.
This capability has been especially helpful when planning surgery on the small bodies of children and infants, Malara says. “A lot of children’s hospitals leverage 3D printing because the scale and the issues that come with newborn babies are often very complex and unique.”
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