Why does the biomedical industry turn towards 3D printing technology?

1. Introduction

In the recent era of digitalisation, there is increasing utilisation of 3D printing mechanism for various purpose in human life and recently the biomedical industry is using it for diagnosing different parts of the human body on the basis of three-dimension image. 3D printing is a process in which the material is printed under the computerised control to create three-dimensional object by adding the objects layer by layer (Wimpenny, Pandey, and Kumar, 2017). The aim of the paper is to develop understanding about the use of 3D printing in the biomedical industry through which the doctors and other health and social care professionals can enhance the technical advancement and utilise latest technology for diagnosing the patients. Through this study, it is possible to acknowledge the concept of 3D printing and its use in the recent years. moreover, the benefits of using 3D printing can also be developed in this paper through which it is possible to identify the reasons why the biomedical industry is turning to the 3D printing technology.

2. Review of literature

2.1 Concept of 3D printing technology

According to Gosselin et al., (2016), 3D printing technology is a method of creating objects through materials such as plastic, ceramics, metals, liquids or even cells, organs of human body in layer for producing three-dimension objects. This technical process is also considered as additive manufacturing (AM), rapid prototyping (RP), or solid free-form technology (SFF) through which helps to convert the two-dimensional (2D) radiographic images, such as x-rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or computerised tomography (CT) scans into three-dimension print by allowing the creation of complex, customised anatomical and medical structures. The concept of 3D printing technology was utilised in the biomedical industry earlier to 2000, when the technology was implemented for dental implants and custom prosthetics (Bandyopadhyay, Bose, and Das, 2015).

2.2 Current application of 3D printing in biomedical industry

According to Shemelya et al., (2015), medical application of 3D printing is raising rapidly after that for different use such as printing of bones, ears, exoskeletons, windpipes, blood vessels, vascular networks, a jaw bone, eyeglasses, cell cultures, stem cells, tissues, and organs, as well as drug delivery devices and novel dosage forms. The current application of 3D printing mechanism can be organised into several categories such as creating prosthetics, implants, delivery, and dosage forms, anatomical models, and pharmaceutical research concerning drug discovery, as well as tissue and organ fabrication and transplants. As stated by Chhaya et al., (2015), another great application of 3D printing technology is to produce biomaterials, cells, and cell-laden biomaterials individually or in tandem, layer by layer, directly creating 3D tissue which provides a new horizon to the biomedical industry to diagnose the patient efficiently and provide the best quality care and treatment. As opined by Kalaskar, (2017), other application of 3D printing technology in the recent years are such as printed blood vessels, brain surgery, heart valves and kidney transplant, where the surgeons take clear resolution of the internal organs of the patient and conduct operations efficiently. Efficiency of the health care professionals as well as quality of treatment can be enhanced through 3D technology, for which the biomedical industry is truing towards the utilisation of 3D technology (Liaw, and Guvendiren, 2017).

2.3 Advantages of using 3D printing in biomedical industry

The greatest advantage of 3D printing technology is that it provides an opportunity to the medical application to enhance customisation and personalisation where it is possible to produce custom-made medical products and equipment. As opined by Attaran, (2017), for example, 3D printing provides a scope to customise the prosthetics and in in turn helps to maximise the values of both the patients and the physicians. Custom-made implants, fixtures, and surgical tools under the 3D printing technology are beneficial for the physicians to treat the patients and it also have significant positive impacts on the patient’s safety security, surgery, patient recovery as well as the success of the surgery or implants. In addition to the above benefit, it is also advantageous for the biomedical industry to turn into 3D printing technology as it is a cost-effective approach to treat the patients with maintaining the quality of treatment and care. According to Alhnan et al., (2016), it is possible to produce the proper treatment at efficient cost which reduces the cost of treatment as well as helps the health care institutions to treat the patients by maintaining its cost of 3D printing and it further helps to gain highly competitive advantage in the market. Though the initial cost of implementing the 3D printers is high, the cost of small size production is also low which provides an advantage to the doctors to treat the patient at cost efficient way. This is effective also for small sized implants or prosthetics, where the doctors use this for dental, craniofacial disorders and spinal. Moreover, as stated by Jammalamadaka, and Tappa, (2018), the cost of custom print under 3D printing is also minimal and this is advantageous for the health and social institutions for lowering the production cost and serve better care and treatment to the patients. By decreasing unnecessary manufacturing resources, the technology of 3D printing minimises the cost of treatment and hereby, it is easier and more efficient way to provide cost effective treatment to the patients.

The technological advancement in the biomedical industry further influence the doctors, nurses and other health care professionals to utilise 3D printing technology for providing better care and treatment. In this regard, it is beneficial to utilise 3D printing mechanism for improving the quality of health and social care outcome and enhance the quality standard of overall biomedical industry as a whole. In this regard, 3D printing mechanism provides an opportunity to turn into more advanced technology so that it is possible to treat the patient by conducting proper diagnosis through 3D printing. According to Ventola (2014), faster production and cost efficient way are other advantages of utilising and implementing the 3D printing technology in the health care institutions and in the recent years, most of the doctors, nurses, surgeons and physicians are cooperating to use the 3D orienting for better outcome, where they can diagnose the patient by test their internal condition layer by layer which in turn improves the treatment and care of the patient. Through 3D printing technology, the doctors, 3D printers, engineers, surgeons and researchers can collaborate in the workplace and cooperate with each other for better outcome of the patients. In this regard, as stated by Yan et al., (2018), the 3D printing mechanism provides a scope to increase the success rate of the hospitals and give a new horizon to the biomedical industry to improve the quality standard of the treatment and patient care. In addition to these, it reduces the time of treatment and patient’s diagnosis, where all the surgeons can utilise this mechanism safety by creating risk free environment at the hospitals. It further reduces the cost of surgeries as well as the cost associated with incorrect device selection for which the use of 3D printing mechanism can be considered as appropriate way to provide quality treatment to the patients within effective time (Wimpenny, Pandey, and Kumar, 2017).

Enhancing productivity is another advantage of using 3D printing mechanism for which the doctors, surgeons, physicians and other health care professionals to improve productivity and enhance organisational performnace as a whole. As opined by Yan et al., (2018), the staff members and nurses are technological skilled and knowledgeable about the 3D printing technology and they are efficient to provide the patient better care and practice within effective time. the 3D printing technology has the advantage of high speed, clear resolution, accuracy, reliability and repeatability which improves the quality standard of the patient’s safety and treatment. in addition to these, it helps to improve communication and cooperation among the team members in the hospitals or the other health care institutions where all the doctors, surgeons, physicians, and efficient nurses cooperate with each other and interact for better patient’s outcome. these advantages further influence the biomedical industry to turn towards the utilisation of 3D printing mechanism through which they can create values for the patients and provide better care and effective treatment through utilisation of this latest technology (Wimpenny, Pandey, and Kumar, 2017).

2.4 Disadvantages of using 3D printing technology

Despite of many potential advantages of using 3D printing technology in the biomedical industry, there are certain disadvantages such as unrealistic expectation where the expectation of the technology is exaggerated by the government, researchers and media. According to Ngo et al., (2018), 3D printing requires proper time to implement, adequate resources and financial capital, skilled workforce and proper vision to evolve with the anticipated applications. as stated by Bhattacharjee et al., (2016), another disadvantage of using 3D printing is that, there is lack of safety and security issues on behalf of the patients which is a serious concern among the researchers, doctors, physicians and the surgeons. On the other hand, patent and copyright concern is another issue under 3D printing mechanism for which some of the health care professionals cannot utilise it properly. Manufacturing the application of3D printing is subject to copyright, patent, industrial design and trademark and lack of maintaining of this copyright and patents leads to a serious issue for the organisations.

2.5 Future trends of using 3D printing in biomedical industry

According to Ngo et al., (2018), 3D printing plays a crucial role in enhancing the patient outcome and technological advancement in the biomedical industry for which in near future the use of 3D printing will be raising rapidly in the industry so that the health care professionals can provide effective care and treatment to the patients within effective time. as stated by Bhattacharjee et al., (2016), trend towards personalised medications, customising nutritional products, organs, drugs as well as demand of drug printing, medication formulations in pharmaceutical industry influence the biomedical industry to conduct drastic changes in the industry and provide cost effective health and social care service to the patients. In addition to these, in near future, the biomedical industry is turning towards 3D printing due to high demand for bioprinting of complex organs, printable heart, printed organs as well as complex heterogenous tissue, such as liver, kidney tissues and printing external organs such as skin, which in turn motivate the health care professionals to implement 3D printing mechanism in the hospitals for better care and improving quality of standard of care. Hereby, according to Wang et al., (2017), this is an appropriate approach in the biomedical industry where the health care professionals can imporve productivity and quality standard of treatment and deliver high quality service and effective treatment to the patients within effective time and in a cost efficacity way. Due to the advantages of customisation and personalisation of medical products, the democratization of design and manufacturing, drugs formulation, and equipment, cost-effectiveness, increased productivity, and enhanced collaboration, the biomedical industry implement and focus on utilising 3D printing technology.

3. Research gap

The research is useful for the researcher to develop in depth understanding about the mechanism of 3D printing and its use in the biomedical industry. The literature review in this regard provides an opportunity to the researcher to analyse the importance of 3D printing in the biomedical industry in near future. However, the research lacks in collecting first-hand information front he doctors, engineers, physicians and surgeons which would provide better understanding and practice of 3D technology in the biomedical industry.

4. Conclusion

Through the literature review, it can be stated that, 3D printing technology is useful and potential transformative tool in the biomedical industry which enhance medications and drug formulation, higher resolution, printing different organs in human body and improve the performance of the hospitals in providing better care and treatment to the patients at a cost-efficient way. The medical advances and biomedical industry as a whole utilise 3D printing technology as it is significant and revolutionary application in the health and social care institutions for providing high quality service and appropriate treatment to the patients.

Reference List

• Alhnan, M.A., Okwuosa, T.C., Sadia, M., Wan, K.W., Ahmed, W. and Arafat, B., 2016. Emergence of 3D printed dosage forms: opportunities and challenges. Pharmaceutical research, 33(8), pp.1817-1832.
• Attaran, M., 2017. The rise of 3-D printing: The advantages of additive manufacturing over traditional manufacturing. Business Horizons, 60(5), pp.677-688.
• Bandyopadhyay, A., Bose, S. and Das, S., 2015. 3D printing of biomaterials. MRS bulletin, 40(2), pp.108-115.
• Bhattacharjee, N., Urrios, A., Kang, S. and Folch, A., 2016. The upcoming 3D-printing revolution in microfluidics. Lab on a Chip, 16(10), pp.1720-1742.
• Chhaya, M.P., Poh, P.S., Balmayor, E.R., van Griensven, M., Schantz, J.T. and Hutmacher, D.W., 2015. Additive manufacturing in biomedical sciences and the need for definitions and norms. Expert review of medical devices, 12(5), pp.537-543.
• Gosselin, C., Duballet, R., Roux, P., Gaudillière, N., Dirrenberger, J. and Morel, P., 2016. Large-scale 3D printing of ultra-high-performance concrete–a new processing route for architects and builders. Materials & Design, 100, pp.102-109.
• Jammalamadaka, U., and Tappa, K., 2018. Recent Advances in Biomaterials for 3D Printing and Tissue Engineering. [online] available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5872108/ [Accessed on 23 February 2019].
• Kalaskar, D.M. ed., 2017. 3D printing in medicine. London: Woodhead Publishing.
• Liaw, C.Y. and Guvendiren, M., 2017. Current and emerging applications of 3D printing in medicine. Biofabrication, 9(2), p.024102.
• Ngo, T.D., Kashani, A., Imbalzano, G., Nguyen, K.T. and Hui, D., 2018. Additive manufacturing (3D printing): A review of materials, methods, applications and challenges. Composites Part B: Engineering, 143, pp.172-196.
• Shemelya, C., Banuelos-Chacon, L., Melendez, A., Kief, C., Espalin, D., Wicker, R., Krijnen, G. and MacDonald, E., 2015, November. Multi-functional 3D printed and embedded sensors for satellite qualification structures. In 2015 IEEE SENSORS(pp. 1-4). IEEE.
• Ventola, C. L., 2014. Medical Applications for 3D Printing: Current and Projected Uses. [online] available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4189697/ [Accessed on 23 February 2019].
• Wang, X., Jiang, M., Zhou, Z., Gou, J. and Hui, D., 2017. 3D printing of polymer matrix composites: A review and prospective. Composites Part B: Engineering, 110, pp.442-458.
• Wimpenny, D.I., Pandey, P.M. and Kumar, L.J. eds., 2017. Advances in 3D printing & additive manufacturing technologies. Berlin: Springer.
• Yan, Q., Dong. H., Su, j., Han J., Song, B., Wei, Q., and Shi, Y., 2018. A Review of 3D Printing Technology for Medical Applications. [online] available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095809917306756 [Accessed on 23 February 2019].

Annoted bibliography

Reference 1:

Jammalamadaka, U., and Tappa, K., 2018. Recent Advances in Biomaterials for 3D Printing and Tissue Engineering. [online] available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5872108/ [Accessed on 23 February 2019].

Through this paper, it is possible, to understand the advantages of utilising the 3D printing technology in the biomedical industry, where the authors provides the methods of using 3D printing as well as its advantages such as fabricating scaffolds using 3D printing, ability to create 3D printing of different organs, multiple cells which in turn helps in enhancing growth in using 3D printing mechanism in the biomedical industry for better care and practice. However, in this regard, the authors lack in discussing the recent uses and application of 3D printers in the health and social care institutions for better care and delivering quality treatment to the patients.

Reference 2:

Ventola, C. L., 2014. Medical Applications for 3D Printing: Current and Projected Uses. [online] available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4189697/ [Accessed on 23 February 2019].

The study is effective for understanding the medical application for 3D printers and current trends of utilising the 3D printing mechanism in the biomedical industry. The concept of 3D printing, application and future trends of using 3D printing as well as concept of applying this technique for medical purpose provide an opportunity to develop understanding about the 3D printing technology. In addition to these, the advantages and disadvantages of using 3D printing in the biomedical industry are effective in this paper to acknowledge why the biomedical industry is interested to move towards 3D printing mechanism for providing better care and treatment to the patients in a time effective and cost-efficient manner.

Reference 3:

Yan, Q., Dong. H., Su, j., Han J., Song, B., Wei, Q., and Shi, Y., 2018. A Review of 3D Printing Technology for Medical Applications. [online] available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095809917306756 [Accessed on 23 February 2019].

In this paper, the authors focus on discussing the medical application of 3D printing in which the 3D printing technology is successful in resolving the challenge of organ transplantation by creating personalised tissue, developing engineering scaffolds, repairing tissue defects in situ with cells, and even directly print tissue and organs. In this research, the introduction of 3D printing technology and its use in biomedical industry as well as the existing problems of developing 3D printing and developing proper solution for utilising this 3D printing mechanism are discussed. The conclusion and the future directions are also effective to understand the reason why the biomedical industry turn into proper utilisation of 3D printing technology, but the research lacks in discussing real life explanation and case studies in which the 3D printing has been applied.