Will Medtech's Future Be Printed?Will Medtech's Future Be Printed?

November 5, 2014

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Will Medtech's Future Be Printed?

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Will Medtech's Future Be Printed?Additive manufacturing could be poised to make good on its promise to be the next big thing for the medical device industryWhat if your arthritic hip or knee could be replaced with a 3-D printed implant that could merge with your own bone while spurring the growth of new cartilage? Or imagine if you had severe heart disease and you could have a new transplanted heart printed from your own cells. Or imagine that 3-D printing could be used to treat severe burns and wounds by printing living skin cells atop them.Just look at three areas—orthopedics, cardiology, and wound treatment—and 3-D printing could be one of the biggest breakthroughs in medicine in the 21st century. Or is it?Medical device engineers at least seem enthusiastic about 3-D printing, if an informal online poll of our audience is an indication. The poll asked: “What type of device and/or technology will be the next big thing for the medical device industry?” With 76 out of 164 votes (or 46% of the total), the creation of synthetic (cell-based) organs was the clear winner.It does seem as if 3-D printing has immense potential to transform both the medtech industry and medicine at large. But it remains uncertain how much of the sci-fi-esque banter related to this technology is predictive of breakthroughs to come within the next decade or so and how much is hype.How Promising Is 3-D Printing Really?To be fair, 3-D printing is already starting to reshape the medical device industry, especially in the orthopedics and dental fields, where the technology is gaining ground. And 3-D printing is also reshaping product development as well, owing to its ability to help facilitate rapid prototyping and the creation of medical models.Pete Basiliere, research vice president at the Gartner consulting firm, said in a report published in August that within two to five years, 3-D printing of medical devices “will offer exciting, life-altering benefits that will result in global use of 3-D printing technology for prosthetics and implants.”In a “hype cycle” diagram produced by Gartner, the firm contends that the 3-D printing of medical devices is approaching what it terms “the peak of inflated expectations.” Industrial applications of 3-D printing are close behind, according to Gartner’s research. The model predicts that the hype bubble will soon pop,  to be followed by what it terms the “slope of enlightenment,” where the technology will gradually begin to live up to its potential.In any case, it likely won’t be long before 3-D printing finds widespread use in medicine. “Within a few years, we should be able to have 3-D-printing-driven patient-centric diagnostics and surgical guides with a cost similar to that of an MRI,” remarks Kai Worrell, president and CEO of Worrell Design (Minneapolis).The ability to readily produce 3-D printed complex organs, however, is at least a decade away, even by the estimates of the most optimistic researchers such as Stuart K. Williams, a professor of surgery at the University of Louisville who is working to develop a 3-D printed heart.Read on and find out about four key areas where 3-D printing has the most potential for medtech.Refresh your medical 3-D printing knowledge at BIOMEDevice San Jose, December 3-4, 2014.Brian Buntz is the editor-in-chief of MPMN and Qmed. Follow him on Twitter at @brian_buntz. Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to our daily e-newsletter.Image caption: Recently, doctors in Cincinnati  began working with Materialise to help image and craft a 3-D model of a 16 year old patient’s heart, revealing the size and location of a tumor in greater detail than any previous CT scan. Image courtesy of Materialise.

Will Medtech's Future Be Printed?

Additive manufacturing could be poised to make good on its promise to be the next big thing for the medical device industry

What if your arthritic hip or knee could be replaced with a 3-D printed implant that could merge with your own bone while spurring the growth of new cartilage? Or imagine if you had severe heart disease and you could have a new transplanted heart printed from your own cells. Or imagine that 3-D printing could be used to treat severe burns and wounds by printing living skin cells atop them.

Just look at three areas—orthopedics, cardiology, and wound treatment—and 3-D printing could be one of the biggest breakthroughs in medicine in the 21st century. Or is it?

Medical device engineers at least seem enthusiastic about 3-D printing, if an informal online poll of our audience is an indication. The poll asked: “What type of device and/or technology will be the next big thing for the medical device industry?” With 76 out of 164 votes (or 46% of the total), the creation of synthetic (cell-based) organs was the clear winner.

It does seem as if 3-D printing has immense potential to transform both the medtech industry and medicine at large. But it remains uncertain how much of the sci-fi-esque banter related to this technology is predictive of breakthroughs to come within the next decade or so and how much is hype.

How Promising Is 3-D Printing Really?

To be fair, 3-D printing is already starting to reshape the medical device industry, especially in the orthopedics and dental fields, where the technology is gaining ground. And 3-D printing is also reshaping product development as well, owing to its ability to help facilitate rapid prototyping and the creation of medical models.

Pete Basiliere, research vice president at the Gartner consulting firm, said in a report published in August that within two to five years, 3-D printing of medical devices “will offer exciting, life-altering benefits that will result in global use of 3-D printing technology for prosthetics and implants.”

In a “hype cycle” diagram produced by Gartner, the firm contends that the 3-D printing of medical devices is approaching what it terms “the peak of inflated expectations.” Industrial applications of 3-D printing are close behind, according to Gartner’s research. The model predicts that the hype bubble will soon pop,  to be followed by what it terms the “slope of enlightenment,” where the technology will gradually begin to live up to its potential.

In any case, it likely won’t be long before 3-D printing finds widespread use in medicine. “Within a few years, we should be able to have 3-D-printing-driven patient-centric diagnostics and surgical guides with a cost similar to that of an MRI,” remarks Kai Worrell, president and CEO of Worrell Design (Minneapolis).

The ability to readily produce 3-D printed complex organs, however, is at least a decade away, even by the estimates of the most optimistic researchers such as Stuart K. Williams, a professor of surgery at the University of Louisville who is working to develop a 3-D printed heart.

Read on and find out about four key areas where 3-D printing has the most potential for medtech.

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

Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to our daily e-newsletter.

Image caption: Recently, doctors in Cincinnati  began working with Materialise to help image and craft a 3-D model of a 16 year old patient’s heart, revealing the size and location of a tumor in greater detail than any previous CT scan. Image courtesy of Materialise.

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