3DMed | Development and streamlined integration of 3D printing technologies to enable advanced medical treatment and its widespread application

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3DMed aims to improve the affordability and large-scale accessibility of medical treatment using 3D printed devices. Top universities and innovative companies in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the UK join forces in an unprecedented exercise to explore the full potential of the 3D printing technology for advanced medical care.

When the project started:

With the concerted efforts of the 17 project partners and 14 observer partners, the Interreg 2 Seas project 3DMed has ended on 31 March 2022. Despite the unexpected disturbances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, in the past three years and a half, the aimed objectives have been achieved:

3D printing (3DP) technologies carry the promise of revolutionizing the quality and efficiency of healthcare.

However, the required technologies, even when available, are currently too fragmented to be integrated into routine, affordable and streamlined solutions that can benefit a large number of patients.

The challenge thereby is to deliver 3DP technologies enabling:

Patient-specific solutions

Personalized medical devices that are designed using the images acquired for individual patients and best fit their treatment needs.

Complexity and miniaturization

Complex shapes, articulations and miniaturized geometries of implantable medical devices and instruments have the potential to radically enhance treatment effectiveness and post-treatment recovery.

Streamlined care

The ability to integrate diagnosis, design and manufacturing of 3DP medical devices into a validated software platform is the key to delivering fast, affordable treatments with dramatic life-saving potential.

Overall objective

3DMed aims to improve affordability and large scale accessibility of medical treatment using 3D printed devices. This will be achieved by increasing the TRL of state-of-the-art 3D printing technologies for medical applications and integrating them into a streamlined, fast, cost-effective software platform for use in routine clinical practice. The main objectives are:

Streamlining and integration

To streamline the various steps of the 3D manufacturing process and integrate the data flows with pre-planning and post-operatory evaluation;

Technology development

Advance the TRL of metallic, composite and polymeric 3D printed medical devices;

Validation

Demonstrate the superior performance and ascertain the clinical benefits of the 3D printed medical devices developed in 3DMed.

Months

Project partners

Observer partners

Cross border approach

The integration of the currently fragmented expertise, technologies and methodologies for 3D printing (3DP) in medical applications requires the joint effort of ‘best-in-class’ partners and collaborative work across disciplines and borders:

TUD is leading worldwide in the field of steerable medical devices; the involved research groups at UG are leading in the field of virtual optimisation and that of biomaterials for 3DP, respectively; ARMINES is well equipped with expertise on 3DP of composites; ULille has top expertise in designing drug release systems and UOx on bioresorbable materials; MTL delivers preoperative planning solutions, with the unique potential to link with postoperatory evaluation; DORC is market leader in ophthalmic surgical instruments.

The consortium also includes innovative companies (AmI, EXO-L, VIGO, 3DLP, OxMestar, Oceanz), as well as clinical observers and clusters throughout the 2Seas area, to catalyse the transfer of results to a critical mass of users.