4 min reading time

Katie Weimer from 3D Systems gave us a gift: The most informative update on 3D printing for medical devices.

Here are the entire video, slides, and transcript: http://medgroup.biz/Katie-in-3D

She fascinated us with before-and-after patient photos who benefited from the technology. (You can download the slides.)

Katie explained 3D printing is now commonly used for anatomical models, personalized surgery, patient-specific implants, bracing and casting, mass customization of medical devices (like hearing-aids), regenerative medicine, and bio-printing.

We learned there are five main types of 3D printing and more than 70 additive manufactured devices have been cleared through 510(k).

Among the many examples she showed:
• Anatomical models of a patient’s current bone structure so the surgeon can pre-plan how to proceed.

• A 3D printout of how a plastic surgery patient will look post-operatively.

• “Virtual Surgical Planning” – to digitally simulate the post-operative result.

• A full-facial transplantation helped by 3D-printed guides to explore how well the new face would fit.

• Decorative scoliosis braces that improve patient compliance because the devices are beautiful and fun.

• Printing out patient-specific CPAP masks to fit and help patients better.

You’ll want to watch this. Bookmark and watch it later if you don’t have time now. That link again: http://medgroup.biz/Katie-in-3D

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At her talk’s conclusion, I asked Katie, “How might you address the 80% percent of the room that saw what’s possible but don’t know how to use it for their business?”

Paraphrasing, she answered, “Developers have been designing based on the constraints of a milling machine. That’s no longer a constraint. It takes time for this evolution to take place. Medical device developers may be wary of the new technology but ready for you to use now.”

For today’s discussion, have you begun to think how you can use 3D printing for your business? What structural changes concern you most?

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DISCUSSIONS

Would you recommend a Medical Device Career to your children?

Class I medical devices

How to reduce transportation costs for medical devices?

ISO 14971 Update with Annex ZA

FDA’s updated biocompatibility guidance is here

Transparency under the new MDR and IVDR

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BRAIN HACKING SUMMER OPPORTUNITY
A chance to work on a project with Dr. Philip Low from NeuroVigil

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Make it a great week.

Joe Hage
Medical Devices Group Leader

P.S. Join me in Boston Aug 11-12 for MDMS, the Medical Device Marketing/Sales Workshop at http://medgroup.biz/MDMS

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Julio Ferro
Independent Contractor | Medical Devices | Product Development | Quality | Regulatory Affairs |
Just watched the CNN Vital Signs show where this technology was showcased being used to print a replica of a heart to help correct a cardiovascular condition in a child. Amazing!

Donal O’Sullivan
Managing Director, Sherkin Technologies Ltd.
Soofi S Have you considered EB curing of 3-D materials, with surface sterilization for free ? Also the use of ebeam obviates the need for UV photo-initiator use in polymers and resins, reducing possible skin irritations caused by such PIs.

Sandeep Saini
Co-Founder and CEO at Transit2College at Transit2College
Great. Please contact me.

Kevin Reed
Consultant l Global Quality l Strategic Supply Chain l Global Sourcing l Global Operations l Operational Excellence
Would love to better understand how to deal with the process validation methodologies for 3D printing.

Jonathan Jurgaitis
Technical Extrusions from Exotic Materials
@riley reese

Marc De Fré
Marcom Director Agfa Medical Imaging
excellent !

Willy Vivanz
Chief Technology Officer chez Clariance Spine
Wonderful job, for sure the most informative, Thanks again Joe for sharing, and congrats to Ms Weimer for this huge presentation !

Bret Schaller
Innovator, Engineer, Creator, Entrepreneur
I design, 3D print, and sell medical devices for veterinary medicine. This is my latest start up and it’s in the early stages. There is opportunity anywhere a market isn’t large enough to justify injection molding tooling costs.

Robyn Barnes
Business & Real Estate Writer, Regulated Industry Business Development, GxP Lifeline Media Professional
Thank you for posting Katie’s presentation. She did a wonderful job and I was so impressed with the improvement 3-D printing has made in braces for scoliosis.

JESUS DOMINGO DIAZ GARCIA
CEO – Founder en Norfoam espumas técnicas, s.l.
Good information. Thank you

Gavin Ritz
CEO at International Health Group
Brilliant talk, I used 3D printing to design and prototype a new generation of newborn resuscitation masks, but in quite a different fashion that Katie mentions. I combined medical prototyping and engineering design.

Robert Christensen
Medical Consultant
Well Joe, I had the privilege and honor to bring this technology to the medical and surgical field over a quarter of a century ago. All of the conjoined twins were surgically separated using this technique.

Karen Boyd, ASQ CQA
Owner / Operator at QMS Consulting LLC
Thank you, Katie and Joe!

Badier Velji
MBA Candidate at the Haas School of Business, Senior Mechanical Design Engineer at Roche
Awesome talk. We’re trying to implement something similar to the customization of hearing aids and are trying to find partners at the moment.

Virginia Naevestad
Sales Associate at Referral Group Incorporated
Amazing how we are progressing. This is wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

Larry L.
Health Care Quality Assurance
Ms. Weimer, Mr. Hage, thank you. Outstanding content and a committed presentation.

Modesto (Mo) Casas
Increasing Worldwide revenues
Joe. Great summary for those of us who were not there. The technology is amazing and your work in putting together this summary is really valuable. Thank you.

Jeremy Kooyman
MASc. P.Eng. Stakeholder-centric Medical Device Innovation.
Great content. Thanks for providing the transcript, Joe.