The days of “Star Trek” matter replicators aren’t here yet, but 3D printers are getting us closer to that reality each year. The replicator was a machine that could simply make items. 3D printing is a unique technology that’s created a vibrant industry of its own. And it’s dramatically changing how other industries operate.
 
As 3D printing costs continue to drop and saturation rises, it’s poised to change forever how supply chains and manufacturing work. One of the most exciting aspects of the 3D printing revolution is what it has done—and stands to do—in healthcare. Over the past decade, its push into the medical field has been disruptive, amazing, and inspiring.
 
But first, let’s discuss 3D printing and how it’s changed in recent years.
 
What Is 3D Printing?
In 3D printing, you use a computer program to design an item, and then you print it. It could be something small like a child’s toy or something as complex as a replica human heart (more on that shortly).
 
3D printing began in the late 20th century with stereolithography, in which a liquid material was heated until solid by ultraviolet lasers. Today, it uses a process known as fused deposition modeling (FDM). That’s what your home 3D printer uses, often with a filament of plastic polymer.
 
In the past decade, over 2,000 patents for 3D printing techniques have been issued. The patents making the biggest difference in the medical community fall into two broad categories:
 
Patents that decreased the cost of 3D printing from less expensive printers to more efficient methods. This has made 3D printers available to more hospitals in more areas.
Printing with new materials, including those more appropriate for medical 3D printing. This has allowed variety in printing options, including more durable materials for prosthetics and materials more similar to human tissue.
 
These developments have led to—or are likely to soon lead to—a number of changes in the industry. Following are five of the most interesting.
 
1. On-Site Printing
Up until 2018, only a few hospitals in the most developed nations had on-site 3D printing. Other facilities had to request print jobs from those hospitals or from 3D printing custom shops. Area hospitals with 3D printing labs would print custom orthotics and other medical devices for other hospitals nearby.
 
That meant higher prices and longer waits for 3D printed health items, as well as the time, logistics, and expense involved with transporting them after printing.
 
For the past two years, costs of medical-grade 3D printers have dropped, and most hospitals can now afford a printing lab on-site. This means faster treatment times and lower costs. Perhaps more significantly, it flattens the quality of care across regional differences. Once a 3D print design is developed anywhere in the world, any facility anywhere else in the world can have the designed object in hand within hours.
 
2. Cheaper and Better Prosthetics
3D printing gives patients and caregivers needing prosthetics all of the advantages listed above, especially with organizations like e-NABLE which design and freely share 3D printable prosthetic plans online.
 
Before 3D printable prosthetics became an option, the process of fitting prosthetics for a given patient began with a base model. Most base models allowed for some rough adjustments, after which further customization might be allowed—if the patient could afford it and the clinicians had the time. But even with time and money, that customization was often limited.
 
With 3D printing, a patient can have a prosthetic custom-designed to their exact needs and specifications, then printed for them on-site. It costs exactly as much to print a perfectly fitted device as it does to print a base model. That means people can get a necessary prosthetic that’s customized to fit their needs, and they’ll receive it much more quickly than in the past.
 
3. Replica Practice Organs
In 2014, a two-week-old baby who needed emergency heart surgery benefitted from one of the first implementations of what is arguably the “coolest” new application of 3D printing. To prepare for the surgery, the team at Stanley Children’s Hospital in Manhattan printed a 3D replica of the child’s heart. The replica was an exact structural match and made from materials that were similar to the touch. It allowed them to practice in advance the exact procedure they would conduct on the heart, and that practice helped them to save the baby’s life more efficiently and with less anesthetic, as the operation was shorter overall.
 
Although dummy organs have been used for training and practice since last century, 3D printing practice organs allows the surgeon to practice on an exact replica of the organs they will perform surgery on. The 3D replica organs are custom-printed to match the patient and constructed so quickly their production doesn’t delay the surgery.
 
Over the past six years, this practice has become more common, but it’s not standard procedure for reasons more administrative than cost-based or logistics-based. As it breaks through the final hurdles, it will improve how surgeons conceptualize surgery prep and how the next generation of surgeons are trained.
 
4. Printed Instruments
This is exactly what it sounds like: printing medical (especially surgical) instruments in real time and on demand. Although it may not sound like much, it carries two powerful advantages that can improve outcomes across a spectrum of applications.
 
The first is sterility. No matter how intense the storage protocols are for instruments, there’s always a tiny chance of contamination while the instruments are hauled across the country or sit in storage for months. A sterile printed instrument is sterile upon completion and built just hours or minutes before being used. The chances for contamination are reduced, meaning patient outcomes improve.
 
The second is customization. Many surgical kits include every item commonly—or even conceivably—needed for that surgery. That makes manufacturing and storage simpler but also increases waste. Printing surgical instruments on-site means you can print only the instruments when you need them. Plus, you can gain quick access to a unique or unusual device you may need during a special surgical case.
 
5. Cost Savings
Okay, I admit this one isn’t as cool and futuristic as custom-printing a practice heart or prosthetic limb, but it has the potential to make the kind of sweeping, behind-the-scenes changes that alter a field dramatically. And, let’s face it, medical costs are important.
 
Printing on-site can reduce waste, reduce or eliminate storage and shipping costs, and significantly reduce costly complications. Plus, it gives patients in remote villages and small towns access to healthcare similar to what patients get in major cities such as Boston, London, or Singapore.
 
Coming Soon: 3D Bioprinting
The aforementioned examples are happening now, making significant changes in medicine as we watch. Another development isn’t here just yet, but it’s not hyperbole to say that when it arrives, it will change things more than the other five combined.
 
As it stands, 3D printing—even specialized medical printing—uses conventional materials to construct the objects it produces. However, over the past five years, researchers have made increasing developments in what has been named bioink. Bioink is 3D printing with biological matter—actual living tissue.
 
As this trend continues to develop, we can expect to see true science fiction situations in which a team can print an organ for immediate transplant, skin to graft a burn victim, or even transfusion blood that’s identical to what the patient’s body produces.
 

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Joshua McAlpin lives in California, where he is a consultant in the medical industry.