Future Medicine: The Impact of 3D Printing

Future Medicine: The Impact of 3D Printing

Advances in 3D printing materials, equipment, methods and techniques are already enabling on-demand, highly customized patient treatments. Developed in the early 1990s as a powderbased fabrication technology for the rapid prototyping of tools using metals and ceramics, 3D printing uses a digital file to produce an object of almost any shape via an additive process that lays down successive layers of material. The availability today of 3D printers for home use has led hobbyists to eagerly adopt it as a convenient means for creating simple plastic objects rapidly, cheaply, and with an amazing degree of accuracy. However, developments over the past five years have shown that the impact of this technology is no longer restricted to simple materials and hobbyists.3D printing is seeing tremendous growth in the fabrication of tailored prosthetics, medical implants, novel drug formulations and the bioprinting of human tissues and organs.