The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), a multidisciplinary professional association, has announced the roster of speakers, exhibitors and tours for its AM Medical: Additive Manufacturing & 3D Innovations event.
Set to take place May 27-28, 2020, at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minnesota, the event is dedicated to 3D printing applications of medical and dental devices. It therefore seeks to bring together technology experts and clinicians who are leveraging additive manufacturing to improve patient care and healthcare in general. The event has been designed as a forum for clinicians, engineers, manufacturers and industry professionals to form business connections and share technology insights through hands-on learning and interactive sessions with experts.
“There is an incredible demand for advanced healthcare solutions that impact patient care and operational efficiency,” comments ASME President Richard Laudenat. “We are fueling collaborations that will unlock future growth opportunities and improvements for patient care.”
“There’s potential for exceptional applications to become accessible to more patients as device manufacturers harness the technology for production on a larger scale.”
ASME is currently assessing the situation regarding Covid-19, and will make a decision that ensures the health and safety of the meeting and conference participants, as well as its staff. It is monitoring the advice given by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) as the situation progresses. As of writing, the event is still scheduled to take place. Check the website for the latest updates.
Individual patient care with 3D printing
The ASME was originally founded as an engineering society focused on mechanical engineering in North America in 1880. Today, it is a multidisciplinary and global organization operating in the areas of engineering, standards, R&D, training and education, with over 110,000 members in more than 150 countries worldwide.
Its AM Medical event will focus on 3D printing case studies for individual patients, as well as the mass production, complex creations and innovative designs achieved with additive manufacturing for healthcare in general.
3D printing has proved a useful tool for creating patient-specific healthcare solutions, due to the design freedom offered by the technology. In the second half of 2019, a UK patient became the sixth person in the world fitted with a personalized 3D printed rib cage implant. Fitted by surgeons at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK, the operation was successfully completed to help repair the patient’s breastbone, which collapsed following complications from a previous surgery. Additionally, a doctor at Cleveland Clinic, a nonprofit multispecialty academic medical center in Ohio, has used 3D printing to create patient-specific airway stents, in order to overcome the problems caused by their ill-fitted standard counterparts.
Dr. Juan Carlos Fernandez-Miranda of Stanford University is a physician that has also used additive manufacturing to improve patient care. Fernandez-Miranda will be presenting a case study at AM Medical about how he and his team utilized 3D modeling and virtual reality to plan a brain tumor removal operation for a two-year-old boy.
Growth of the medical AM market
ASME highlights how nearly 150 medical devices that have received FDA clearance are produced using additive manufacturing. The organization also explains that the total value of 3D printers, materials, software and services for medical applications is expected to reach $2.2 billion by 2024, citing a recent report from Global Market Insights. The AM Medical event aims to help achieve this growth potential for 3D printing in healthcare by enabling collaboration between the manufacturing and medical communities to enable technology application.
Many of the keynote presentations at the event will therefore focus on the future of medical and dental 3D printing, as well as effective quality systems for the technology. They will be delivered by a range of panelists from organizations and individuals at the forefront of medical 3D printing. This includes Dr. Beth Ripley of the VA Puget Sound Health Care System and Director of the VHA 3D Printing Network, who is engaged in extensive work to develop new applications for 3D printing in the diagnosis and treatment of complex heart conditions. Dr. Ripley will be delivering her presentation on Thursday, May 28.
Sam Onukuri, Head / Sr. Fellow of the 3D Printing Innovation & Customer Solutions at Johnson & Johnson, will also be delivering a keynote presentation on “What’s Next for Medical & Dental 3D Printing?” also on Thursday, May 28. Johnson & Johnson has also been heavily involved in advancing medical 3D printing. Most recently, it signed a research collaboration agreement with T&R Biofab to develop 3D bioprinted soft tissue scaffolds.
“At Johnson & Johnson, we are using 3D Printing technology to innovate at every touchpoint with patient specific, on-demand solutions that promise to transform the standard-of-care and to help more people access treatments globally,” explains Onukuri.
Additional organizations with keynote presentations include the Mayo Clinic, Medtronic, Stryker, the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI), Dimension Inx, and the FDA. The likes of 3D Systems, EOS, SLM Solutions, Formlabs and Stratasys will also be present at the AM Medical event as sponsors and exhibitors.
Elsewhere, 3D Printing Industry has set up a Discord server to bring together medical professionals and the 3D printing community. You can join the 3D Printing Industry Discord server here.
The nominations for the 2020 3D Printing Industry Awards are now open. Who do you think should make the shortlists for this year’s show? Have your say now.
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Featured image shows titanium femoral implants additively manufactured by GE Additive. Photo via ASME.
