As 3D printing choices for the healthcare market continues to enhance, and adoption rises, Ido Bitan, director of product administration at Stratasys provides his ideas on the alternatives 3D printing creates for improved healthcare, and the way forward for the business.
1. Inform us about Stratasys’ work to push ahead 3D printing for the medical business.
In 2017, Stratasys underwent a strategic transformation by embracing a vertical strategy in offering 3D printing options to numerous industries we serve. This concerned shut collaboration with prospects to discern their necessities, thereby influencing the path of our product roadmap. Within the medical sector, this ensures that the options we create provide real scientific worth for the business.
Our success is rooted in our shut reference to prospects, enabling us to pinpoint present gaps and tailor merchandise to their particular software wants. This shut collaboration results in a steady cycle of enchancment, benefitting not solely our options providing however, crucially, our prospects.
2. What work does Stratasys at present do within the medical business?
We constantly collaborate with main healthcare establishments, paediatric hospitals, and tutorial medical centres to maximise the potential of 3D printing within the medical business. In MedTech, our machines are employed by prospects for fast prototyping, manufacturing, design, advertising and marketing and schooling & coaching. Our product vary empowers the medical sector to make use of 3D printing for surgeon coaching and simulation, because of our improvement of supplies that biomechanically replicate human tissue and bone. Our PolyJet 3D printers are able to multi-material, multi-colour fashions, enabling these to be produced in a single print.
With medical services, our emphasis is on tailoring options to particular person sufferers, collaborating with numerous surgical specialties. Radiology departments convert affected person DICOM knowledge into printable information for functions equivalent to diagnostics, surgical planning, and affected person schooling. Lots of our prospects use Stratasys machines alongside our biocompatible and sterilisable supplies to fabricate reducing and drilling guides for surgical procedures, to enhance surgical planning and help surgical procedures.
3. What alternatives does 3D printing for medical purposes provide?
The healthcare sector is uniquely poised to realize benefits from 3D printing, given its means to generate bespoke options for particular person sufferers. Whether or not centralised or decentralised, 3D printing offers a stage of flexibility that isn’t constantly achievable with conventional manufacturing strategies.
For over 15 years, 3D printing has additionally been a rising expertise in manufacturing within the dental business, demonstrating its potential in creating options tailor-made to particular person sufferers. This personalised technique improves affected person care and outcomes.
Moreover, the transfer in the direction of bespoke affected person options is noticeable within the medical business, and is beginning to emerge within the pharmaceutical business. This shift highlights the importance and worth positioned on personalised options, providing benefits to hospitals, payors and sufferers alike. The endeavour to develop superior options goals to cut back general healthcare bills, broadening accessibility because of this. Our precedence is to repeatedly enhance affected person care and guarantee scalability for the good thing about all stakeholders.
4. What is going to the important thing developments be for Stratasys over the approaching 12 months?
Within the coming 12 months, our dedication entails ongoing enchancment of our options via collaborative efforts and investments – our work is a steady course of. The MedTech business, together with clinicians and hospitals, is devoted to prioritising affected person care. Our goal is to work with them to supply even higher, quicker, and extra scalable 3D options to fulfill their exacting and altering wants.
We’re additionally deepening our improvement and supporting of personalised options via superior supplies and AM manufacturing at scale. Final 12 months we introduced the joint improvement of an industrial-scale bioprinting answer for CollPlant’s regenerative breast implants program, utilizing Stratasys P3 expertise. That is an space we need to broaden upon, and we are going to proceed to observe and assess our steps within the Bioprinting world, together with using Bioresorbable supplies.