3D Printing : Revolutionising Healthcare

Medical applications of the 3D printing are expanding, thus, revolutionizing the healthcare. 3D bioprinting includes 3D printing techniques to combine cells, growth factors, and biomaterials to fabricate biomedical parts that can imitate natural tissue characteristics to the maximum extent. The technology is ushering in an era of efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and convenience in the healthcare industry.

With the severe need of tissues and organs for transplantation around the world, medical technology is now harnessing 3D printing and tissue engineering and building tiny organs, or “organoids” which will be able to grow inside the body in case an organ such as a kidney or liver fails. Similarly, research is going on to produce the 3D bioprinter prototype that can produce human skin that can have life-changing implications for burn victims. Also, the cost-effectiveness of the transplant using such would be of great consideration. For instance, kidney transplant as of now costs around $3,30,300 which is made using 3D printing will retail around $10,000, bringing down the overall procedure cost. Thus the development of these organs or organoids would provide a step forward in the area of organ implants. 

Not only in the tissue engineering and transplant, the technology will also provide a new level of precision to pharmacologists by designing pills and capsules which can house multiple drugs at once, each with different release times called “polypill concept” and has already been shown positive results in the patients suffering from diabetes. 

Thus, with precision, speed, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness may prove to the kind of innovation that may open huge possibilities in the field of medicine.