3d Printing In Healthcare Summary

As 3D printing transitions from commercial manufacturing use to personal private use individuals will have the ability to print any design. Products can range from a pair of shoes to complicated engineering designs, life-saving devices, prosthetic limbs and weapons that pass airport security. In the future we will likely see printable medications and

The field of bioprinting, using 3D printing technology for producing live cells with extreme accuracy, could be the answer to many of the problems we as humans face in the medical field. It could be the end to organ waiting lists and an alternative for organ transplants. In 3D printing technology lies the potential to replace the testing of new drugs on animals. However, the idea of applying 3 dimensional printing to the health industry is still quite new and yet to have a major impact. Manufacturing working 3D organs remains an enormous challenge, but in theory could solve major issues present today.

In a study conducted through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on “average 79 people will receive an organ each day; however, an average of 22 people die each day” waiting for transplants that cannot take place because of the shortage of donated organs (U.S. D.H.H.S). The average amount of patients waiting for an organ can reduce to zero with the continued development of 3-D printers. 3-D printing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. The digital file is uploaded onto a computer software, and then the 3-D printer prints the digital file out onto different materials. The materials include plastic, resin, nylon, sandstone. The finish products become replicas of the digital file, and what was an idea is now a reality. Therefore, 3-D printers will one day be the future of organ transplants because over the past twenty years the technology industry has rapidly grown into the focal point in society. From advancement in communication, to the medical field, science and technology has shaped this world today. Thus, the American Government should invest more money into the medical field budget because the research conducted on new technology (3-D Printers) leads to more lives saved, and expands the opportunity of future medical breakthroughs.

What would you do if you needed surgery and the doctor told you there was new technology that allow surgeons to spend less time while operating and is much safer? The parents of ten-year-old Kevin Yintia from Kansas City was faced with this type of question earlier this year. Kevin contracted an infection living in Central African Republic while he was just a baby. This infection caused severe damage to Kevin’s hip, which made him smaller than the average boy. Since Kevin was only ten years old, other methods of treatment like braces would be very costly as he would out grow them every few months (Carter). The Chief of Orthopedic Research, Dr. Richard Schwend, at Children’s Mercy Hospital was able to fix Kevin’s

Unfortunately, this is the sad reality. Having the technology to utilize a 3-D printer to reconstruct a patient’s organ would prevent patients from having to wait for a donor organ. Being able to use the patient’s own cells to build his or her new organ would decrease the chances that the patient’s body will reject it. According to Thilmany (2012) indicated “the end goal here is the growing of a biocompatible piece of tissue to repair or replace a patient's own damaged body part, such as bone, cartilage, blood vessels, or skin” (p.

Anthony Atala, in his 2011 Ted Talk, Printing a Human Kidney, tells of printing a bladder. He explains that they use a small piece of the patients original bladder. They then print a scaffold and let the cells grow on the scaffolding in an “oven like device” that has the “same conditions as the human body -- 37 degrees centigrade, 95 percent oxygen” Weeks later, the organ has grown and it is ready to be placed in the patient. Atala explains that “For these specific patients, we actually just suture these materials. We use three-dimensional imagining analysis, but we actually created these biomaterials by hand.”Luke Massella, a patient who received a 3D printed organ because he was born with spina bifida that prevented his bladder and kidneys

As mentioned earlier, 3D printing can be more than just fun and games. 3D printing can be used to make organs and living tissues as well. This is obviously a complex process, but it can be done. This would allow more people to be able to receive transplants. This idea of printing organs and tissues has been discussed for quite a while now.

“A 3D printer is a computer run machine, which has the ability to print out objects layer by layer” (Griggs Para.1). The new advancement is a 3D organ printer that will print out human organs using embryonic stem cells. “To complete this process first scientist harvest stem cells, allowing them to double in a petri dish. The stem cell mixture can then be placed into a 3D printer, which is encoded to create an organ” (Griggs Para. 8). The technology for bioprinting isn’t yet complete but within the next few years bioprinting will be a real possibility. With the help of bioprinting, patients who have been waiting on organ transplant lists will no longer have to wait month or years for a compatible organ. Organ transplant wait times could be shortened days. With the use of this technology, “people who would once have to wait in anticipation on whether or not they would even receive an organ, will have the ability to get a brand new organ print from their own cells” (Hsu Para.2). Recently, a group of scientist tested a similar process by bioengineering a trachea for piglets made from the stem cells of different piglets (Castillo Para. 4). It was concluded, “three months after the bioengineered trachea was planted, the baby pig tripled in weight and doubled in size" (Castillo Para. 4). This proves the bioengineered trachea caused no harm to the piglet; it allowed them to grow and mature the

"3D Printer Definition."02 January 2014). "According to a medical research team at Harvard, the lab of Dr. Jennifer Lewis has designed a custom 3d printer… to create a swatch of tissue cell containing interwoven structural material that can potentially function as blood vessels" (Prof. Jennifer Lewis, Sc.D. MIT). The ability to print tissue is a huge step for medicine due to the external and internal structures containing tissue cells. Burn victims can now receive printed tissue cells instead of the previous methods of having to surgically graft their skin. Although the previous method is highly successful and leads to functioning skin cells after the healing process is over, “The grafts… ideally come from locations that are not ordinarily visible, such as the buttocks or upper thighs, because the donor sites will not be normal in appearance after they heal” (Skin Grafts for Burn Treatment. N.p., 2016. Web. 10 Apr. 2017). The main benefit of 3D printed tissue is the freedom it allows for the patient. No longer will the victim have to suffer from a traumatic experience as grueling as being burned, and then have to decide where else on their bodies they are willing to disfigure(N.p., 2016. Web. 10 Apr. 2017). 3D printed tissue is essential because it sets the patients up for success from the beginning while not having to rely on finding a donor match or using

Maybe the greatest innovation over the last decade has been 3D printing. It has allowed people to make all sorts of fantastic things like furniture, fashion designs, and even full homes. Now, we turn to Michael Jackson, who was one of the most popular music artists of all-time. What do these two have in common? Well, when you hear what recent research has discovered it will all make sense. This research, which was published in Nature Biotechnology, revealed that human organs and limbs could be printed from scratch. Is it all starting to make sense now?

Elizabeth (2014) stated that 3d printing technology is being used in the medical industry. It is being found in dentistry and in one case over 75% of a skull was replaced. Elizabeth (2014) goes on the say that 3D printing is being used to print living tissue which is used

For my regenerative medicine report I chose 3D organ printing, also called 3D Bioprinting. More specifically, I focused on the 3D printing for Kidneys. 3D printing of organs works by using stem cells to create tissue that can be used to fix a part of an organ, or many tissues that can create a whole organ. (ed.ted.com) The printers, in collaboration with computer-assisted design, would print out ultra thin layers of tissue to be layered on top of one another to form organs. (asme.org) There are also 3D printers that were made that can print stem cells. (livescience.com) This way, instead of extracting totipotent embryonic stem cells, or having to settle for pluripotent adult ones, there can be stem cells that are still totipotent

Current medicine up has typically depended on the human body as its main model in the creation of organs for transplants and teaching methods. Up until recently X-Rays and cadavers have served as primary reference points for the structure of bones and were used as universal models for almost every human. However, now with the introduction of the 3D printer in the medical field, the possibilities and advancements are growing and the options are becoming endless. Using scientific research on current studies in the medical field will demonstrate what 3D printing is, how 3D printing is revolutionizing surgical procedures and teaching methods, and what actions should be taken to ethically use this invention.

The idea of three-dimensional bioprinting with a focus in creating organs or replacement tissues has several benefits alone. The most significant advantage of bioprinting is the possibility of creating viable organs that can be used for transplants. According to the American Transplant Foundation, there are around 120,000 people in need of an organ transplant, with an average of 22 people dying each day because they could not find an organ in time (American Transplant Foundation, 2016). Patients with damaged or diseased organs could have their failing organs replaced with a new organ made out of the patients’ own tissue, via the three-dimensional bioprinter (Chau, 2015). This means that the idea of an organ transplant wait list would be a thing of the past, and patients could have an organ printed that very day. This would extend the life span and could save the lives of those in need of an organ. This is also a significant advantage, because three-dimensional bioprinting utilizes the patient’s own tissue and cells to regenerate and create new skin or organs (Mahmoud, 2015). This notably decreases the risk of rejection of the organ or tissue. Bioprinting also has the advantage of being more cost effective and time-efficient than waiting up to months or even years for an organ (American Transplant Foundation, 2016). While an organ transplant will generally cost an average of around 1 million dollars, due to the procedure, immunosuppressants, and the extensive hospital stays, a bioprinted organ could save you thousands, due to the shorter hospital stays, and decreased need of immunosuppressants (Chua,

All the techniques contain advantages and disadvantages, but a problem that needs solving before used clinically, is advancing the printer technology. A 3D-printed organ must contain the ability to perform all the functions of a real organ as