24 Mar 2022
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Collaborative Workshop Propels Plans for a New Regional 3D Medical Printing Facility
A recent workshop funded by UEAHSCP has linked together like-minded local NHS clinical specialists and UEA researchers looking to coordinate the implementation of a regional 3D medical printing service.
Delivered as a hybrid event, almost 20 people joined face to face at UEA’s picturesque Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, and a further 15 or so joining virtually.
The partnership’s POC 3DP research group’s primary ambition is to drive forward joint discussions to develop and run a regional 3D Printing (3DP) capability which would include a 3DP service within one of our hospitals for clinical use, and an off-site R&D service at UEA to facilitate medical innovation and technology transfer of our region.
3D printing has many benefits for clinical use, including the production of surgical models to help plan and support surgeries and implants. Housing a 3D facility regionally will support the delivery of patient centred services, allowing more effective treatment to be delivered to patients faster, and offering significant cost-saving for the NHS.
The workshop was led by POC 3DP research group lead Professor Sheng Qi, and speakers included UEA’s Head of Engineering Prof. Chris Atkin, Prof. Richard Bibb from Loughborough University, Matt Pilley from University Hospitals of Leicester, Erik Erickson from Stratasys and Joanne Staples from Materialise. The workshop finished with in person attendees touring UEA’s own Productivity East Additive Manufacturing facility.
In additional to building clinical 3D printing capability to serve our NHS, Professor Qi and her team has been working closely with our NHS and industrial partners on developing 3D printing tools to enable personalised medicines manufacturing at/close to the point of care. Embedding a personalised medicine approach into mainstream healthcare of NHS has been set as NHS's ambition since the white paper published in 2016. The ability to deliver personalised medicine to patients at/close to the point of care can not only improve clinical treatment outcome, but also improve the resilience of our regional medicine supply chain.
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