Impact of digital manufacturing on health care industry

Abstract

Healthcare industry is one of the most important sectors that had made substantial progress over the past few decades and is continuing to evolve in many different areas. The applications of digital manufacturing technologies such as three dimensional (3D) printing are rapidly increasing and likely to transform the healthcare industry. Moreover, 3D printing capabilities align well with the needs of medical applications and are feasible for specialized pre-surgical planning, prosthetic applications, tissue engineering and organ printing, regenerative medicine etc. Furthermore, 3D printing technology has significant potential for development in various aspects of the modern healthcare industry, due to its capability of printing customized, complex, multi-material geometries.Therefore, in the next few years, 3D printing is expected to transform the healthcare industry. However, the limitations due to initial equipment cost, lack of expertise, and lack of suitable materials and stability of the printed materials need to be addressed to take full advantage of the technology.