AM & Health
AM Summit 2022 breakout session: The breakout session on Additive Manufacturing in the healthcare sector focused on how the technology can help doctors and patients, and how 3D printing can explore new design opportunities, enable mass customisation, and create greater production flexibility.
The session was moderated by Michael Mølmer, Chief Medical Officer at Nordsjællands Hospital. The panel participants were:
- Nadine Moises, 3D Print Production Consultant, Formlabs
- Anders Mølgaard Jakobsen, Clinical Engineer and Project Manager, Aarhus University Hospital
- Martin Gerth Andersen, Founder and CEO, Snapform
- Mads Tendrup, CEO and Founder, Exo360
1 size fits 1!
We were joined by three manufacturers of customised solutions for the healthcare sector – all with the same overall conclusion: 3D printing provides opportunities that were not previously possible. With the new technology, they can now offer solutions tailored to the specific customer’s needs, whether prosthetics, casts, or surgical tools. The need for customised solutions is significant in the healthcare sector, as every customer has a different anatomy. Previously, this was either addressed with an inefficient generic solution or with very expensive and complex customised solutions. 3D printing offers the possibility of customising new products for customers in a more flexible, cost-effective, and value-optimising way. In summary, across the three areas, they can now offer better and cheaper products to customers. What’s not to like?
Regulations are still a hurdle…
3D printing is still a new way of manufacturing products and components within the industry. Unfortunately, all the panel participants are using significant resources to address regulatory challenges related to the new technology – a problem we need to overcome to give 3D printing a broad and commercial breakthrough in the industry. At present, 3D printing is treated as equivalent to traditionally manufactured products, which in some cases does not make much sense. Nevertheless, the panel participants strongly believe that this will change in the coming years, as more and more companies and hospitals focus on the technology in their production.
