Proven Workflows in Medical 3D Printing

Dmitry Levin, Associate Director at the Center for Cardiovascular Innovation and Co-Director Center for Multidimensional Medicine at the University of Washington, shares the steps from starting a print lab to how to implement quality management and model verification tools in a hospital setting. He goes over the reasoning behind switching to this new technology, as well as the highs and lows in 3D printing. Wondering what you’re getting yourself into? This webinar is the best place to start.

This report reviews the clinical and economic impacts of 3D printing, as well as challenges and opportunities for 3D printing technology as its use expands across healthcare delivery settings.

The growing use of 3D printing in healthcare presents unprecedented potential for radiology departments. In this webinar, Dr. Jonathan Morris, co-director of the Anatomic Modeling Laboratory and Neuroradiologist at the Mayo Clinic shares the history of 3D printing in medicine, and examines real-world case studies of how radiologists have successfully introduced 3D printing capabilities and programs into hospitals.

As more instruction moves to the virtual classroom and the cost of patient-specific, 3D printed simulation models from CT/MR data has decreased to a few dollars per part, a rapidly increasing number of residency programs are creating detailed, patient-specific models to enhance trainee education both at home and in the classroom. In this post, we explore how 3D printing is being used to improve surgical resident education. 

The Formlabs medical team recently spoke with some of our current hospital customers and asked them, “how does your healthcare system think about financing medical 3D printing?” Unsurprisingly, we received more than one answer to this question. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the four most common strategies that healthcare systems identified.

Health systems must maintain resilient and adaptable supply chains in order to provide patient care in the midst of a crisis. Jeff Immelt, former CEO of GE and GE Healthcare, and Max Lobovsky, CEO of Formlabs, discuss how 3D printing is changing healthcare. They will be introduced by Gaurav Manchanda, director of healthcare at Formlabs, and Todd Goldstein, director of 3D design and innovation at Northwell Health. Recently, Northwell Health repurposed their Formlabs 3D printers, which usually print surgical tools, to produce over 100,000 nasopharyngeal swabs, mitigating global shortages and providing critical testing capabilities. They also used 3D printing to develop and print critical supplies, including BiPAP to ventilator convertors, and personal protective equipment (PPE).

Personalized, precision medicine is on the rise. New tools and advanced technologies are bringing doctors closer to patients, delivering treatments and devices customized to better serve each unique individual. Advances in medical 3D printing technology have made tremendous contributions to fields throughout healthcare. For patients, new tools and therapeutic methods developed through 3D printing can bring new degrees of comfort and personalization to treatment. For doctors, this newly accessible technology allows for a greater understanding of complex cases and provides new tools that can ultimately result in a higher standard of care.

Dr. Sanjay Prabhu, Pediatric Neuroradiologist and Clinical Director of the SIMPeds3D print program at Boston Children’s Hospital, covers best practices for imaging techniques used in 3D printing anatomical models. Sometimes having just an MR or CT scan isn’t enough to produce an accurate model for clinical analysis. His webinar covers the definition of, need for, and process of creating multi-modality prints to best serve the healthcare community. 

The Formlabs medical team created this practical walkthrough for physicians and technologists to get started creating 3D printed anatomicals models from patient scans, reviewing best practices for setting up a CT/MRI scan, segmenting datasets, and converting files to a 3D-printable format. 

Einar Heiberg is an associate professor and director of the 3D Centre at Skåne University Hospital in Lund, Sweden. He is also a researcher in the Lund Cardiac MR Group at Lund University. In this webinar, Einar shares the work performed at Skåne University Hospital with 3D printed molds and cutting guides for cranioplasty and neurosurgery created with Medviso segmentation software. 3D printed molds are now clinical routine at the hospital, saving 20-30 minutes for each surgery. Using these molds has also improved the aesthetic outcome and has increased surgical precision. 

Mattias Biancucci, the co-founder and CEO of MIRAI 3D, has been working with Formlabs technology to accurately plan surgeries using kidney models. He works closely with Dr. Gonzalo Vitagliano, Head of the Oncology and Urolaparoscopy Sections of the Department of Urology at Deutsches Hospital, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has seen surgical time reduce and patient-safety optimized as 3D printing is becoming a winning-standard for laparoscopic partial nephrectomy. In this webinar they discuss why they've shifted from FDM to SLA printing with Formlabs.

Michelle Ho is a medical student at Sidney Kimmel Medical College pursuing radiology. During medical school she dedicated her time to learn about 3D printing and its applications in patient education, simulation, and pre-surgical planning as a research fellow in the Health Design Lab at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. In this webinar she shares with us her skills in segmentation and surgical design for mandibular reconstruction using Materialise Mimics software.

Once your print has finished you will need to wash, cure, and post-process your part. This support article walks you through every step of post-processing to ensure you have a good looking model with its optimal mechanical properties. Follow along to set yourself up for success with each print. 

Whether washing prints manually with the Finish Kit or automatically with the Form Wash, follow Formlabs best practices to achieve the cleanest parts. Your parts come in all shapes and sizes, this article will give you tips on how to wash them effectively and maximize the longevity of your IPA. Read up on avoiding cross-contamination to ensure your parts are biocompatible and free of resin. 

Formlabs has received hundreds of inquiries from clinicians and users in the 3D printing community who are eager to use our technology to respond to medical equipment shortages created by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article looks at the regulatory landscape for 3D printing in healthcare and how the technology can be responsibly used to have the highest impact on patient care.

Dr. Frank Rybicki, Dr. Leo Chepelev, and Dr. Prasanth Ravi share with us their results for determining the accuracy of printing anatomical models using the Form 3. Dr. Chepelev discusses the background, study design, and methodology used in their study. Dr. Rybicki shares his analysis of the results that prove the Form 3 is accurate to 1.0mm or better for anatomical models.

When 3D printing a medical device, it's important to understand the regulatory implications and steps necessary to bring your product to market. In this blog we go over the distinctions in medical device classifications, medical device registration, necessary biocompatibility testing, and the QMS (quality management system). 

Formlabs printers, materials, and associated products comply with a variety of safety and quality standards in different jurisdictions. In this support article we list the many standards (including medical device, quality system, environmental, and electrical safety) that our printers and resins meet. 

Dr. Jayanthi Parthasarathy is a trained dental surgeon with years of experience and practice in India. For over 20 years she has utilized advanced image processing and additive manufacturing to arrive at solutions for unmet needs of the medical community with implantable and non-implantable devices. In this webinar, she highlights the quality control and assurances she has created as the current manager of the 3D printing program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus Ohio in the Department of Radiology.

Juan Garcia is currently an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University with dual faculty appointments in the Departments of Art as Applied to Medicine as well as the Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery. Juan is a Certified Clinical Anaplastologist (CCA) through the Board for Certification in Clinical Anaplastology (BCCA). In this webinar he shows us his clinical activities which include making patient specific facial, ocular, and somatic prosthetic devices. His research also includes designing custom 3D printed surgical simulation models. 

Dr. David Zopf integrates 3D printing into his clinical and research practices to enhance patient care and advance treatment options. One area of focus is pediatric congenital and craniofacial malformations. He demonstrates how he uses 3D printing with cartilaginous tissue engineering for ear and nose reconstruction. These tissue scaffolds are in preclinical evaluation.  Another focus is using 3D printing to develop high fidelity simulation devices to enrich surgical training. Dr. Zopf routinely uses 3D models to optimize surgical and medical care. 

Dr. Andrew Kanawati, an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in trauma and spinal surgery, has a 2-part series where he shares his research on the benefits of 3D printing patient specific guides for spinal surgery. You will learn about the pros and cons of CT vs. MRI imaging for spinal surgery, how his research is leading to better patient outcomes, and which resins he is using for bone-specific applications. 

Dr. Christian Petropolis, an academic plastic and reconstructive  surgeon and program director for the plastic surgery residence program at the University of Manitoba, Canada, discusses the importance of modeling and 3D printing in his surgical cases. He highlights the importance of modeling in complex cases and the use of 3D printed objects for even his most routine surgeries. 

Dr. Ho Chaw Sing is the co-founder and Managing Director of NAMIC (National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster), a Singapore government platform initiative to catalyse innovation and scale industrial adoption of digital additive manufacturing technologies. In this webinar, he shows us his entire workflow from design to patient use with the 3D printed Covid-19 nasopharyngeal swab.

Bill Oxley, MA VetMB DSAS(O) and RCVS Specialist in Small Animal Surgery (Orthopaedics) worked as a vet in general practice before undertaking specialist training in Orthopaedics. Bill then worked as a referral orthopaedic surgeon for nearly 10 years, during which time he started using CAD-based virtual surgical planning and 3D-printed surgical guides in the treatment of cases. Bill’s company Vet3D has now provided over 700 patient-specific 3D-printed guide systems for surgeons around the world for treatment of limb deformities, joint fusions, and spinal instability syndromes. 

Dr. Travis Meyer, associate professor and founder of the 3D modeling / makerspace at the University of Florida, shares his findings with our Formlabs resins. He is joined by Dr. Ashley Way as they present the imaging results received from CT, MRI, and ultrasound with a wide array of our materials. Watch now to hear their in depth analysis with each methodology and learn how you can take advantage of these results for creating phantoms or other imaging needs. 

Sean Trahan, the 3D specialist in the 3D Design and Innovation Lab at Northwell Health, uses 3D printing to create educational trainers for surgical residents to practice various surgeries. The idea is to provide a re-usable, low-cost, effective alternative to the traditional "see one, do one, teach one" method of surgical training. It requires a lot of creativity and collaboration to create something that closely mimics human anatomy so that the trainer is as realistic as possible.