|
Viral Sachde
|
3D printing is a process of making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model. 3D printing is achieved using an additive process, where successive layers of material are laid down in different shapes. Major advantages of 3D printing for the healthcare domain are :
- Mass customisation, i.e. each part can be of a different shape/size and one does not need to do any tooling work. This reduces turnaround time for production of the custom part.
- 3D printing is a fully automatic method of manufacturing. Thus it offers clean and accurate parts without manual intervention.
General offering of 3D printing in healthcare domain:
- Model of patients’ body part
- Prosthetic body part
- Custom support part such as teeth cap or ear phone holder
- Custom test setup or low quantity tool production
- Implatable part
- Scaffolds for tissue engineering
Model of patient’s body part: Using mass customisation through 3D printing in the healthcare domain can open up many new avenues. This starts with making simple model of effected body part of patient for better understanding. This model can be generated from 3D scanner, X-ray or CT scan of patient. Next is building supporting or duplicate part to help patient.
Prosthetic body part: 3D printing offers reduction in turn around time in making custom size prosthetics and increases offering. RoboHand project uses 3D printer to make custom size prosthetic hands for kids. One of most commonly used biocompatible material is polylactic acid (PLA). Post degradation in human body, it becomes lactic acid, which naturally gets removed from body. Thus, parts made using PLA as well as polyglycolic acid (PGA) and polycaprolactone (PCL) works with human body.
Custom support part such teeth cap or ear phone holder: Teeth cap and ear phone needs customised size. There are several example where both of these things are made using 3D printing methodology and supplied in thousands.
Custom test setup or low quantity surgical tool production: Mass customisation also helps in building custom or low quantity surgical tools and test setup as per research requirement. While developing new test setup or surgical tools, 3D printing offers quick and economical turn around time.
Scaffolds for tissue engineering: More advance opportunities are in using tissue engineering with combination of 3D printing. Cells are often implanted or ‘seeded’ into an artificial structure capable of supporting three-dimensional tissue formation. These structures, typically called scaffolds. Each patient may require customised scaffolds. By 3D printing biocompatible material, surgeons can generate support structures. Once support structure is built, cells taken from other body area of patients are included on it and kept in growth environment. This can help to reconstruct live section of patient. Separate 3D printers which can deposit cells at right locations are also underdevelopment.
Research, experiments and trials on all above solutions are happening in various parts of India. The expected impact is high. Although Indian medical industry is price sensitive but will not pass such large opportunity. Few jaw replacement by 3D printed parts are already conducted successfully in India. Many doctors in orthopaedic and dentist have started regularly using 3D printed parts. While experiments in tissue has just began, it will take some to see fruitful results.