How 3d Printing is Changing Healthcare

A Band-Aid for the heart? A new way to 3D print material elastic enough to withstand a heart’s persistent beating, tough enough to endure the crushing load placed on joints, and easily shapable to fit a patient’s unique defects. University of Colorado Boulder and University of Pennsylvania. Brief video. August 01, 2024 Excerpt: The breakthrough, described in Aug. 2 edition of the journal Science, helps pave the way toward a new generation of biomaterials, from internal bandages that deliver drugs directly to the heart to cartilage patches and needle-free sutures. “Cardiac and cartilage tissues are similar in that they have very limited capacity to repair themselves. When they’re damaged, there is no turning back,” said senior author Jason Burdick, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at CU Boulder’s BioFrontiers Institute. “By developing new, more resilient materials to enhance the repair process, we can have a big impact on patients.” Historically, biomedical devices have been created via molding or casting, techniques which work well for mass production of identical implants but not practical when it comes to personalizing implants for specific patients. In recent years, 3D printing has opened a world of new possibilities for medical applications by allowing researchers to make materials in many shapes and structures. Unlike typical printers, 3D printers deposit layer after layer of plastics, metals or living cells to create multidimensional objects. One specific material, hydrogel (utilized in contact lenses), a favorite prospect for fabricating artificial tissues, organs and implants. Until now 3D-printed hydrogels tend to break when stretched, crack under pressure or are too stiff to mold around tissues. To achieve strength and elasticity within 3D printed hydrogels, Burdick and colleagues observed worms, which repeatedly tangle and untangle themselves around one another in three-dimensional “worm blobs” that have solid and liquid-like properties. Previous research has shown incorporating similarly intertwined chains of molecules, “entanglements,” can make them tougher. Note: The new printing method, CLEAR (Continuous-curing after Light Exposure Aided by Redox initiation), follows a series of steps to entangle long molecules inside 3D-printed materials much like those intertwined worms. “We can now 3D print adhesive materials strong enough to mechanically support tissue,” said co-first author Matt Davidson, a research associate in the Burdick Lab. “We have never been able to do that before.” Burdick imagines a day when 3D-printed materials could be used to repair defects in hearts, deliver tissue-regenerating drugs directly to organs or cartilage, restrain bulging discs or stitch patients in the operating room without inflicting tissue damage as a needle and suture can. Link to brief video and recently published research enclosed.

🔬 3D Printing Is Revolutionizing How We Make and Take Medicine 💊 I've been researching how emerging technologies are transforming healthcare, and I'm particularly fascinated by the potential of 3D printing in pharmaceutical manufacturing. 3D printing—or "additive manufacturing"—is poised to completely reinvent the pharma manufacturing process. What excites me most is the unprecedented control this technology gives us over medication design. By precisely arranging active and inactive ingredients within pills, we can customize: 🔄 Release and absorption rates 📊 Exact dosages (15mg, 18mg, 23mg—any amount with virtually no additional operational cost) 💦 Physical properties to improve swallowability 💯 Multiple medications combined into single "polypills" For patients with chronic conditions who take 5-10 pills daily, this could be transformative. For rural hospitals with limited storage and budgets, the ability to produce medications on demand could dramatically improve patient outcomes. Of course, regulatory challenges remain for full adoption. Moving drug production from highly controlled manufacturing plants to -pharmacies and hospitals raises complex issues in many markets' regulatory environments. However, the FDA approving the first 3D printed drug - Spritam - in 2015 shows the 3D printing process at least is acceptable tp regulators. There's also the issue of potential misuse. 3D printing has already been used for illegal purposes in other fields, and counterfeit medicines remain a serious problem. Nevertheless, I believe the pharmaceutical industry must prepare for these changes, embracing the opportunities for improved patient outcomes while working closely with regulators to ensure safe, secure deployment. What do you think? Is your organization exploring the potential of 3D printing in healthcare? What challenges do you foresee in implementation? #PersonalizedMedicine #HealthcareInnovation #3DPrinting #FutureOfHealthcare

While I love fixing and replacing things…. sometimes the “fix” isn’t possible and a replacement doesn’t exist. What then? My go to solution is 3D printing. I’m armed with just enough experience to be dangerous and that has made custom car parts phenomenally accessible and inexpensive. In orthopaedics, custom 3D printed solutions would also be my go to answer, especially for acetabular defects where dialing in cup position and ensuring adequate fixation are critical. A recent systematic review found very promising clinical results for 238 3D-printed custom acetabular components with a 2 year component survivorship rate of 98%. https://lnkd.in/gEYswE2q Follow up can always be longer and numbers bigger but I believe these solutions are going to be increasingly more common. Technology inevitably becomes more accessible with time, we continue to learn more about new 3D-printing compatible materials which may have some advantages over traditional metal implants (Oxford Performance Materials, Inc.) and as operative efficiency and clinical outcomes get factored into cost analyses in the future. Enjoy a few sneak peaks into upcoming posts on cases where this technology has really helped me and my patients out. Enovis / promade restor3d Onshape by PTC Prusa Research #3Dprinting #hipreplacement #orthopaedicsurgery #orthopedicsurgery #customimplants