Additive manufacturing is a versatile technology that can benefit medical professionals in all fields, from appliance manufacturing to the doctor’s office. Thanks to constant technological advancements, medical manufacturers and healthcare providers alike are increasingly adopting 3D printers for a wide range of use cases.

3D printing used to be known simply as “rapid prototyping.” It’s an ideal tool for quickly producing accurate prototypes to get new medical tools and products to the market faster.

Additive manufacturing technologies like stereolithography (SLA) are capable of both incredibly fast print speeds and very high detail accuracy. You can produce intricately detailed demonstration and test models from lifelike medical grade materials. Your prototypes will demonstrate exactly what the product looks like and how it’ll work.

Doctors and patients stand to benefit, too. With a shorter development cycle and time-to-market, they can provide and get better thanks to the increased availability of high-quality tools.

Neucin Design is a UK-based producer of medical and life science products. The company has used additive manufacturing in its design processes from the beginning. However, it relied on FDM printers that couldn’t produce the detail quality it needed.

Neucin decided to swap to Formlabs SLA 3D printers. Since the change, the company has significantly reduced lead times, lowered development costs, and improved its products with the expansive material library that includes biomedical materials.

“The Formlabs SLA printers have allowed us to test our products as close as possible to the final materials that we will be using to get an accurate representation of what they will be like. We can print with a wide range of materials — from Tough 2000, which is like ABS, to elastic and biomedical components,” said Henry Verity, Neucin Design development engineer.

The high accuracy of 3D printers allows doctors to produce highly detailed medical and surgical models. Combined with 3D scanners, you can print and produce precisely accurate models and representations of patients’ bodies, both inside and outside.

With accurate medical models, you can plan treatments, surgeries, and other procedures to reduce operation time and improve the quality of care. They also help design customized supports or prosthetics. The models are useful in education as well, as they give future medical professionals a detailed look at human anatomy.

Jefferson Health and Thomas Jefferson University provide both healthcare services and education in Philadelphia, USA. It uses Ultimaker 3D printers to produce high-detail medical models for a multitude of purposes.

The accurate models help Jefferson Health’s doctors and surgeons plan complex procedures. In one case, they used a 3D-printed model to prepare for a challenging C-section operation. The models also improve patient communication while helping medical students visualise the challenges ahead of them.

“When we introduce these models to the patients, their eyes get big and they ask a lot of questions. It helps them to understand what the complexity of their case really is. It’s just so much better to have the patient on the same page and these models really help bring that reality to them,” said Dr. Amy Mackey, Vice Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Abington Hospital.

Prosthetics and orthotics are vital tools for helping patients recover the use of partially or totally impaired limbs — or to replace entirely missing limbs. 3D printers make it possible to customize prosthetics precisely to the wearer’s body. As a result, the appliances will be more comfortable and last longer.

3D printing can also significantly lower the cost of prosthetics, which is a valuable benefit for low-income patients or for doctors working in developing countries. Finally, 3D printers can manufacture prosthetics and orthotics very fast, so patients don’t have to wait to improve their lives.

At only the age of 16, Pedro — an athletic youth from Barcelona, Spain — suffered a stroke that left the right side of his body paralyzed. After a lengthy rehabilitation, he can now move again. But his right hand still doesn’t function correctly, making it difficult for him to swim.

Polytechnic University of Catalonia’s CIM centre used a BCN3D Sigma 3D printer to print a fully customized swim fin for Pedro. Within just four weeks, the developers went through 10 functional prototypes at a cost of only about £80. Thanks to the fin, Pedro swims again and has seen a much faster recovery than anticipated.

In a health emergency, getting the necessary tools and equipment is of paramount importance. 3D printing allows medical professionals to produce the appliances and parts they need at record speeds to address time-sensitive situations.

Depending on the technology and material, 3D printers can produce fully functional, end-use-ready parts in a matter of hours — or even faster. As a result, you can provide high-quality care fast knowing that you’ll always have the equipment you need at hand on demand.

The Covid-19 pandemic hit Italy hard, and the Maria Vittoria hospital was facing a disaster. The hospital had run out of connectors that attach oxygen tubes to breathing masks. The shortage was putting patients’ lives at risk.

Maria Vittoria turned to 3D Systems for help. Thanks to the 3D Systems Figure 4 3D printer, Maria Vittoria had a use-ready test piece in only eight hours. With the machine, the hospital can now produce eight connector pieces in only 30 minutes.