In the session called “Innovative Applications of 3D Printing in Medtech,” conference moderator Guarav Manchada, director of healthcare at Formlabs, spoke about how additive manufacturing is evolving in the medical technology arena.
John Foody, manufacturing engineer from Corvia Medical; Beth Ripley, MD, PhD, director of VHA 3D Printing Network at VA Health Care Systems; and Sean McEligot, section head of medical device research and development at the Mayo Clinic, discussed the advantages and challenges of 3D printing of medical devices as well as what they see for its future.
 According to MDDI Online, Ripley made two points that should resonate with O&P providers and business owners. She said that the biggest bottleneck with the technology in her organization is finding people that understand it and can do the work, and the hesitation in moving resources toward the unknowns of device printing.
She said it is important to “convince your organization to kind of jump into this and show what they’re going to get because there’s a lot of upfront costs. So I would love for us all to continue to work towards that business case and be sharing that out across organizations so that those who are moving into the space have the help they need to be able to convince their leadership that on the other side of all that upfront cost and headache, there is a distinct reward to the patients who are going to benefit from those devices, widgets, or just even the R&D work that might go into the next greatest invention that changes healthcare,” she said.
 To read more about the session conversation, read MDDI Online, “There’s No ‘Easy Button’ for 3D Printing.”
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