The potential applications of 3-D printing are vast, and include everything from making synthetic tissue and organs to custom medical devices--but such innovations could be years if not decades away.

For now, medtech industry insiders need to identify how 3-D printing can help them meet their most pressing need: developing innovative medical devices in a manner that helps them save time and money, and reduce the risk inherent in new product development.

"Where we see the biggest opportunity with medical devices is to use 3-D printing for rapid prototyping," says Michael Patton, MD, who is the CEO of Medical Innovation Labs (Austin, TX), an organization designed to help drive medical device development. 3-D printing, when used for rapid prototyping, can be used to de-risk new product designs early on and ultimately get more promising medical devices on the market, Patton says.

Already, 3-D printing for rapid prototyping has been shown to be effective at reducing risk in product development--in the medical device and other industries. By printing several product iterations at the proof of concept stage and testing them thoroughly, problematic product ideas can be weeded out early on, while promising ones can be refined.

This process can save considerable sums of money down the road, while helping startups create prototypes that can help them win funding.

There are plenty of increased incentives when it comes to avoiding costly mistakes down the road. That's because most of the medtech R&D operations in the U.S have tightened their budgets. "And rapid prototyping can certainly be a way to reduce costs to get products on the market," Patton says.

Medical Innovation Labs itself makes extensive use of rapid prototyping and collaborates with Joe Beaman, PhD, the inventor of selective laser sintering (SLS) 3-D printing technology who is a professor at the University of Texas, Austin.

Rapid prototyping could also help break an innovation logjam that's been caused by a variety of factors, including increased regulatory barriers, a dearth of cash for medical device startups, and the new challenge of designing not just for doctors or patients but for group purchasing organizations and hospitals. Thanks to these factors, too few truly innovative medical devices are making it to the market despite growing demand for new technology that can not only improve outcomes but also play a role in making healthcare more efficient, according to Patton.

"It is amazing when you go through top hospitals at leading universities, and you don't see as much innovation; you don't see many products being developed that could really improve healthcare," Patton says.

Rapid prototyping, in conjunction with an effort to break down the silos in healthcare to spur collaboration, is the path forward, Patton says. "We understand the importance of secrecy and we don't want everyone having their ideas stolen," Patton says. But collaboration--matched with a good dose of due diligence in evaluating new medical device ideas--can be powerful.

While the potential of 3-D printing to be used in the future for, say, bioengineering is an exciting possibility, that technology is years away from commercialization. "For instance, I think 3-D printed organs are exciting, but we are years away from that," Patton says. "The biggest challenge there is going to be vasculature."

Brian Buntz is the editor-in-chief of MPMN and Qmed. Follow him on Twitter at @brian_buntz.