Dan Friedman believes the healthcare industry can be transformed through 3D printing.
“The most variable thing we build objects is the human body,” he told WPR's “Wisconsin today.” “If you're going to print something for people, it's going to be different for almost everyone. And that's where 3D printing really shines.”
During his career as a chemist, Friedman is now the dean of Stoout at the University of Wisconsin – observing the rise and innovations of 3D printing. For example, he has seen 3D printers make prosthetic legs for sheep.
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In Friedman's office, he even has accurate replicas of shoulder bones, muscles and soft tissue. 3D is printed based on an MRI scan.
“As a surgeon, you can print a heart (a person's replica) on a flexible material that allows the surgeon to practice cutting and sutureing it, just like when he actually did an actual surgery,” he said.
Friedman wants to transform the university's 3D printing lab into one of the most advanced in the country. He has worked with Associate Professor and Biomedical Engineer Anne Schmitz, a researcher studying the materials and ways in which 3D printing and artificial intelligence can advance the industry.
Over the past six months, they have added five cutting-edge industrial 3D printers to their UW-Stout labs. This is added to a small printer already existing on campus, with 15 desktop sizes. They want to make technology and expertise available to students and businesses.
“I want to do one widget so I don't have to go out and get a $500,000 3D printer,” Schmitz said. “By having a center, it makes it more accessible. This has a really large printer. We can do one widget for you. We can do another widget for “Company B”.
Freedman and Schmitz recently co-written a conversation article detailing some of the latest innovations in 3D printing for healthcare. They shared some of these innovations with “Wisconsin today.”
3D helps in accuracy and customization
In the core, 3D printing puts one layer of something at a time.
These printers use a variety of materials, such as plastic from bone, nylon, carbon fiber, and even calcium. This is important. Because 3D printing in healthcare requires customization, Schmitz said.
Unlike manufacturing, where machines create countless identical objects, Healthcare allows each 3D printed object to be tailored to suit a person. For example, traditional spine or hip implants are often performed only in standard shapes and sizes, even if each person's needs are different.
Using a 3D printer allows healthcare professionals to fit exactly into the hip or spine replacement bone. You can also adjust the hands and feet of the prosthetic leg for each person.
The pharmaceutical industry uses 3D printing for coatings
According to Freedman and Schmitz, drug manufacturers use printers to personalize drug doses and delivery systems.
Friedman said people tend to think of medicine as one chemical that can dissolve in the stomach. However, the drugs are carefully calibrated to how quickly the coating dissolves, so the drugs fall into a person's system for a period of time.
Printing is designed to build things up in layers, which is useful when designing coatings or packaging around medicines.
Freedman and Schmitz refer to the antiepileptic drug Spritam. This is made with 3D printing. It was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2015 to provide extremely high doses of its active ingredient.
The future is 4D
3D printed objects are already in use in healthcare facilities. One of the most common is the Invisalign brace, Schmitz said.
However, the future of 3D printing is 4D printing.
“The fourth dimension is time,” Schmitz said. 4D printed objects for healthcare means that they can be shaped to suit your body's needs.
The technology uses 3D printing in conjunction with flexible smart materials. This technology takes time to become commonplace, but researchers are working on 4D printed stents.
Stents can respond to changes in blood flow designed to expand or contract as needed, reducing the risk of blockage, Friedman and Schmitz said.
