Software as Core Infrastructure: The New Strategic Imperative

Software is no longer a supporting function. It is becoming the core infrastructure of every innovation-oriented company and hospital.

Earlier this year, I outlined one of my key predictions for 2026: “Orthopedic leaders will stop asking whether software is strategic and instead start asking whether their software stack is sufficient, cohesive, and optimized.” This shift is already underway and accelerating.

We are operating in a moment of relentless technological expansion. While it might not look like it every day, AI, automation, and digital workflows are advancing at a pace comparable to the early days of the internet. The differentiator is no longer access to innovation, but the ability to integrate it effectively. Organizations that adapt their processes accordingly will thrive; those that don’t will struggle to keep up.

And this is where discipline matters.

You don’t automate a process you don’t trust. And similarly, you shouldn’t scale a technology stack without a stable and well-designed software backbone. Planning platforms, workflow orchestration, data traceability, and validation pipelines are no longer “nice to have.” They are foundational to modern operations and future-proof systems.

In additive manufacturing and particularly in orthopedic applications, the consequences of either weak or strong infrastructure are already visible: 

Rady Children’s Hospital, for example, created a 3D lab that has enabled surgeons to plan procedures using patient-specific anatomical models, helping reduce operating time by 30 minutes to over an hour per case while improving outcomes.¹

What’s notable is not just the clinical impact, but the operational one. These programs rely on structured, repeatable digital workflows to support thousands of cases across specialties.

Similarly, in leading pediatric centers such as Bambino Gesù Hospital, integrating 3D planning into clinical workflows has led to approximately 40% reductions in surgical time in some procedures, while improving team collaboration and confidence going into surgery.²

Here, software is not just accelerating care. It is standardizing it, turning complex planning into a reproducible, team-based process.

On the medical devices side, companies like restor3d illustrate the same principle at scale. As they expanded personalized implant production, they implemented automation across their engineering workflows, reducing design time from eight to 12 hours to one to two hours per case while improving consistency and scalability.³

These examples point to a common reality: Without robust software infrastructure, additive manufacturing programs stall as volumes grow. AI initiatives remain siloed and disconnected from clinical reality. Regulatory risk increases as traceability breaks down. Data becomes fragmented across disconnected tools, spreadsheets, and manual trackers.

Once more, at this stage, the question is no longer whether software is needed. It is whether existing systems were designed to support where organizations are going, or whether they are simply layers built on top of legacy processes that were never intended to scale.

If it is the latter, the path forward becomes significantly more complex. True transformation may require a hard reboot of the software infrastructure, a daunting and resource intensive undertaking that few organizations willingly choose, yet many inevitably face.

The most mature organizations are already taking a different approach. Instead of layering new tools onto outdated foundations, they are redesigning workflows with software at the center. They are intentionally structuring data flows, decision-making frameworks, and validation processes. They are standardizing, not just digitizing, their operations.

And importantly, they are doing it early. Because in this new landscape, software is not an IT decision; it is a strategic one.

In orthopedics, the winners won’t just build better devices. They will build better systems.

References
¹ tinyurl.com/odt260551
² tinyurl.com/odt260552
³ tinyurl.com/odt260553

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Nora Toure is a recognized leader in the additive manufacturing industry. She currently serves as the director of medical software sales for North America at Materialise, where she empowers healthcare providers and businesses to leverage 3D planning and printing for medical applications. She is also the founder of Women in 3D Printing, a global organization dedicated to advancing diversity and inclusion in the 3D printing community.