3D Printing Reshapes Healthcare
Printed livers, ears, hands, and eyes? 3D printing can change and save lives.
![](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt69509c9116440be8/blt3f6ee80fa9fd00a4/64cb583335d9ee6351cb352f/3Dhand-circle.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
3D printing can improve the quality of patients' lives -- even save the lives of some people lucky enough to take advantage of the new technology.
Healthcare has been slow to adopt electronic records and messaging apps, but it's been quick to embrace 3D printers and their specialized materials. In fact, the 3D printing market for healthcare will generate more than $4 billion by 2018, according to a January 2014 report by Visiongain.
Medical professionals increasingly explore 3D printing because it cuts costs and improves healthcare. "Customized orthopedic implants, for example, perform much better, and their use dramatically reduces surgery times," said Jennifer Taylor, pharmaceutical industry analyst at Visiongain, in an interview."In addition, 3D-printed medical models can reduce surgery times. Surgery costs $100 per minute. As well as resulting in substantial cost-savings, the use of 3D-printed medical implants reduces the risks associated with anesthesia during long surgeries."
Customization is another reason 3D printing fits naturally into modern treatment, said Shahid N. Shah, chair of the HealthImpact Conference and blogger at HealthcareGuy.com, in an interview. "The interest is very high because 3D printing allows personalization and customization to the extreme -- and there's nothing that requires more customization or personalization than devices connected to or replacement parts of any human body," he said.
As the bodies of patients -- especially children -- change, tailoring 3D-printed parts is much simpler, faster, and less expensive than other approaches, said 3D designer Marius Kalytis, CEO of CGTrader, a 3D marketplace for computer graphics and 3D printing. New materials, or "inks," are advancing 3D printing's capabilities. "Printed implants can be made of fenestrate surface, which will let tissue grow with the implant more easily," he said.
The technology is only at its nascent stages. Researchers are exploring where else we can use 3D printing to improve patients' health. Some promising experiments haven't left the lab. 3D bioprinting, where living tissue is printed, won't be commercially available for the next 12 to 18 months, but hospitals will provide 3D printing of skin grafts within the next decade, said Visiongain's Taylor. Adoption in this area has been hindered by technological limitations and prohibitive costs, added Kalytis.
Currently, many hospitals don't have -- and don't need -- 3D printers, and regular general practitioners won't be installing them any day soon, experts said.
"At present, it won't influence the work a 'normal' doctor does -- only for those people working in these specific, very special fields, and only for those who can innovate," said Liang-Hai Sie, a retired general internist, in an interview. "I think it's a good thing to have these efforts concentrated in a few well-equipped facilities so we [can] learn [how] it is to be used, for what situations, long-term side effects, etc. before it is taken further afield."
It's a different story at larger healthcare organizations. IT departments and senior staff must ensure equipment is available and meets legal and safety rules, while making sure those rules don't stifle innovation, said HealthGuy's Shah. Major research hospitals and health systems should "immediately start to purchase 3D printers," he said. "We need to make sure physicians have access to these sophisticated 'personal manufacturing' capabilities provided by 3D printers," he added.
Delve into our slideshow and take a closer look at what 3D printing can do for patients.
Forget that heavy plaster cast. No need to wrap it in plastic when you shower, or grab a back scratcher for an inconvenient itch. That's the plan, at least, of Jake Evill, designer of the Cortex Cast, which uses the patient's x-ray and a 3D scan of the injured limb to generate a 3D cast that meets the individual's specifications. One side of the exoskeletal cast is open so the patient can put it on. Once secured, built-in fasteners hold it in place. Currently, a 3D cast takes about three hours to print. Although old-fashioned plaster casts take less than 10 minutes for a doctor to prepare, they do take up to 72 hours to set, Evill told Dezeen. Cortex is seeking funding.
In January, Organovo delivered its first 3D-printed liver to a third-party lab for experimentation and testing. It plans to launch liver printing commercially and begin generating revenue via a services model by December 2014. The company is also developing 3D kidney tissues and breast cancer tissues. Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is conducting similar work. Ten years ago, the institute's director, Dr. Anthony Atala, engineered a young patient's bladder in a similar way. Now his team is exploring 3D printing's potential in areas such as the skin and liver.
The eventual ability to deliver customized, printed organs could resolve the quandary of long waiting lists for organ donations and ethical issues about who should receive scarce organs first.
When one patient needed 75% of his skull replaced, doctors used a 3D-printed prosthetic by Oxford Performance Materials. Made of a high-performance polymer, OsteoFab implants are created, or grown, layer-by-layer from a CAD file. They can be shaped to match an individual's anatomy, the company said.
Most hearing aids are manufactured using 3D printing, at least one industry executive claims. That's saving vendors time and money, and providing customers with models that fit and work much better. An audiologist scans the ear, creating up to 150,000 points of reference, then sends the scan to the technician who creates the impression. The manufacturer prints a shell out of resin, and fits it with the necessary electronics and vents, according to Forbes magazine.
More excitingly, researchers are printing ears. Cornell University bioengineers and physicians used 3D printing and injectable gels from living cells to make flexible ears that grew cartilage. British consultancy Fripp Design & Research uses photogrammetry to create an editable CAD model, then cross-references data with CT scans and MRI data to make a custom-fit ear or nose. To create another replacement, just hit print.
Photo: Fripp Design.
When Richard van As lost four fingers in a woodworking accident, he decided to create a mechanical digit to replace his missing fingers. After some trial and error, van As formed Robohand and used donated MakerBot 3D printers and open-source software to create a mechanical hand. The first hand was fitted free on five-year-old Liam (pictured). After a successful Indiegogo campaign raised more than $10,000, Robohand has donated hands to more than 200 people. Earlier this year, Robohand trained people in the Sudan on its system, hoping to help the many amputees created by the region's civil war.
Photo: Robohand.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge printed living retinal eye cells from adult rats, a step that could eventually help cure blindness. Using an inkjet printer, professor Keith Martin and his team in the neuroscience department separated cells from the retina system, a big step toward treating retinal diseases such as glaucoma and macular degeneration. Organizations also use 3D printers to create prosthetic eyes. In late 2013, Fripp Design disclosed that it can make 150 eyes per hour at a fraction of the cost of eyes usually made by hand.
A British orthopedic surgeon 3D-printed and installed a pelvis in a male patient who needed half his pelvis removed because of chondrosarcoma, a rare type of cancer. Dr. Craig Gerrand's staff scanned the man's biological pelvis to decide how much bone needed removal, then used a 3D printer to map his replacement pelvis. A laser fused the titanium powder together and medical staff at the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust coated the metal with a mineral that allowed the patient's remaining bone cells to grow, reported Health Point Capital. Three years later, the patient is healthy and can walk with the aid of a cane.
Dental professionals are using 3D printing for everything from toothbrushes to bridges. Dental 3D systems combine oral scanning, CAD/CAM software, and 3D printing to create dental stone models and various orthodontic devices. Results are typically faster and less expensive. Because many offices bring these services in-house, they have more control over quality.
They're not prosthetics or implants, but Sols's 3D-printed customized shoe insoles aren't your parents' Dr. Scholl's. Customers use a smartphone app to scan their feet. The information goes to the company's database. There, it's quickly converted into a 3D model of consumers' feet and prints out customized insoles in their choice of colors. The nylon insoles are coated in antimicrobial protection to reduce odor. They are priced competitively, according to the vendor.
Nemours's Pediatric Engineering Research Laboratory designs many products, including the Wilmington Robotic EXoskeleton (WREX) to help children with skeletal dysplasia, scoliosis, or cerebral palsy raise and move their arms. To adapt WREX for smaller patients, Nemours 3D-printed parts of WREX on a Stratasys printer in plastic and attached it to a jacket, along with metal bars and resistance bands. New "magic arms" allowed 23-pound patient Emma (pictured) to play with blocks and reach for candy for the first time. As she grows, Nemours prints out a larger version.
Nemours's Pediatric Engineering Research Laboratory designs many products, including the Wilmington Robotic EXoskeleton (WREX) to help children with skeletal dysplasia, scoliosis, or cerebral palsy raise and move their arms. To adapt WREX for smaller patients, Nemours 3D-printed parts of WREX on a Stratasys printer in plastic and attached it to a jacket, along with metal bars and resistance bands. New "magic arms" allowed 23-pound patient Emma (pictured) to play with blocks and reach for candy for the first time. As she grows, Nemours prints out a larger version.
-
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like