19 Jan 2023
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Plans progress to establish a regional 3D medical medical printing service set to improve patient care
We hosted a productive 3D medical printing workshop in December, to progress discussions to establish an innovative regional 3D medical printing facility that has tremendous potential to transform patient care.
Led by Professor Sheng Qi at UEA’s School of Pharmacy and supported by seed corn funding from UEA Health and Social Care Partners, the project has linked together NHS clinical specialists, UEA researchers, industry leaders, and technical engineers to explore the feasibility of collaboratively implementing a regionally based point-of-care 3D medical printing service.
3D medical printing has many benefits for clinical use, including the production of surgical models to help plan and support surgeries like hip replacement, facio-maxillary surgery and other treatments as well as implants.
Professor Qi said “Firstly, we’re offering our expertise to help our local NHS Trusts to set up an in-house printing service. Secondly, we’re seeing how we can best utilise UEA’s own state of the art 3D printing facilities and capabilities to support our local medical technology industry to move current ideas towards future implementation”.
“For health and social care, particularly acute hospital environments, 3D printing is fast becoming integral to designing personalised and effective treatment with rapid service delivery at a lower cost.”
“Housing a 3D facility regionally will support the delivery of patient centred services, allowing more effective treatment to be delivered to patients faster, offering significant cost-saving for the NHS. Partnership working is critical in bringing together the expertise this project needs.”
Delegates heard fascinating insights from Dr Jason Watson, Consultant Maxillofacial Prosthetist at Nottingham University Hospital, and Ruth Goodridge, Professor of Additive Manufacturing at Nottingham University. They both shared their positive experiences of how their region has thrived using 3D medical technology and how it has greatly benefited their patients.
Industry leaders Joanne Staples from Materialise and Robert Holt and Arnaud Toutain from Stratasys also outlined the critical infrastructure required to get this service up and running.
The workshop concluded with in person attendees touring UEA’s own Productivity East facility, a regional hub for engineering, technology and management.
So, what’s next?
In the new year, the support team from UEA Health and Social Care Partners will work closely with Professor Qi and her talented team to move this ambitious project forward to the next phase.
UEAHSCP Research Director Carrie Jackson is proud to support this locally led innovation:
“We’re thrilled to see this project moving forward at pace. Professor Qi’s team have the vision and ambition to position our region as a leading catalyst to transform 3D printing technologies into cost-effective tools to serve the NHS and our community.
“At a time of immense pressure with a huge backlog of waiting lists for operations, this provides the opportunity for members of the public to receive the treatment they need faster as well as it being precise and tailored to their needs.”
If you’d like to find out more about this technology and how it may benefit your health and social care service, please do email our team at ueahscp@uea.ac.uk.
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