3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, involves printing layers of material into a 3 dimensional object, and it’s been disrupting the manufacturing industry.  How big is this?  The Economist has called it the 3rd Industrial Revolution.  And in the next decade, it looks like it could disrupt just about every industry in health care.

According to Boston’s Lux Research, 3D printing was a $777 million industry in 2012, with 95% going into automotive and aerospace.  And by 2025, they expect the market to grow to $8.4 billion, with the medical market growing from $11 million in 2012 to $1.9 billion in 2025.

3D Printing in Health Care is not new to some in the drug world where it has early applications.  What’s new is that in the next few years, there are a lot of other applications that will reach prime time.

Here is a sampling of how it’s already being applied in health care:

• Bionic ear  (Princeton University)
• Partial skull replacement
• Airway splint
• Prosthetic face
• Prosthetic arms
• Hearing aids
• Dental fixtures
• Human tissue.  Yes, you read that right.

Bioprinting Human Tissue and Organs

Bioprinting involves laying down layers of cells to create tissue.  Examples:

• Printing skin to help wounds heal faster
• Knee cartilage, heart valves, bone implants
• Testing Tissue in drug development.  This is happening today, and it’s allowing testing on 3D tissue rather than 2D cell cultures.  Organovo, a San Diego company in the regenerative medicine space is the first company to launch a 3D bioprinter, and is printing to order functional human tissue for research and therapies, including blood vessels, lung tissue, and recreated tumors.

What about functional organs for transplants?  We’re still 10 years out.

But there are significant challenges.  3D printing materials are still costlier than their analog counterparts, but prices will drop.  That will make reimbursement challenging.  And 3D products in general have shown that they’re as good as traditional products, but not superior.

We’re just at the start of something big.  From Lux Research:

“In the longer term, 3D printing has the potential to reshape the manufacturing ecosystem, but it will have the most impact in the near term for products that are made in small volumes, require high customization, and are more cost-tolerant. To survive the hype and subsequent fall-out, winners will identify and serve new applications early and often through nimble materials, application development and business models.”

Thinking about starting a new health care company?  You’re running one now, and don’t want to be building yesterday’s tech?  Then Mary Meeker’s 2013 Internet Trends presented at All Things Digital Conference is a must read.  Here’s how you figure out where the technology puck is going to be.  Yes, the next big computing shift is just underway.  Check out the presentation below, here are a few thoughts first:

Mobile is still on the way up

It’s old news that smartphone and tablet platforms are growing fast.  What’s interesting is that we’re not even close to reaching the ceiling.  In fact, not only are tablets growing even faster than smartphones, shipments have surpassed PCs and notebooks in Q4 2102.

Wearables/Drivables/Flyables/Scannables is getting off the ground

Really, that’s Mary’s working title for this category of platforms.  Other adjectives come to mind – pervasive, environmentally embedded, smartphone sync buddies – you get the picture.

Wearables stand out for their near term possibilities.  So what’s driving wearable tech?  One reason Mary cites is that the average smartphone user reaches for their smartphone 150X/day.  That decreases with wearables.

Health Care

Health tech gets mentioned in a couple of different ways.  Jawbone UP gets a nod as wearable fitness tracking.  They’ve logged billions of steps!  And MyFitnessPal is doubling the data they capture every month. (slides 23, 24)

But very worthy challenges remain.  Mary includes a slide on Drivers of Premature Death (2007).  Of note:

Behavior is biggest driver of death (40%)
Genetics is second (30%)
Health Care is third (10%)

Certainly not trivial challenges.  Just a few of the industries are we talking about – fitness/wellness/health promotion/prevention, life sciences/biotech, health services, and health insurance.  But can wearables move the needle?

High Skilled Immigration is a big issue

So much potential, one common constraint.  Mary shows that the global environment for recruiting high-skilled STEM workers is likely to get much more competitive.  I’m sure health care companies are feeling this too, loosing tech talent to other industries, and well, the rest of the world.  Expect more posts on this topic later.

See Presentation here:

careinnovators is excited to announce CareFWD 2013! Careforward (CareFWD) 2013 is a Massachusetts cross-industry health care innovation event. Scheduled for October 2013, CareFWD is where health care change agents come together to celebrate accomplishments, discuss the big issues, and inspire innovation for the next year! CareFWD will be the first health care event to anchor BREW (Boston Region Entrepreneurship Week).

As reforms, economic changes, and transformative technologies impact the health care sector, CareFWD is designed to address common challenges and opportunities facing all health care industries in Massachusetts in moving innovations forward, from biotechnology and life science, medical device, health IT, health plans, to health services. Cross-industry engagement and networking is encouraged with attendees actively problem solving and searching for solutions.

Join the health care community at CareFWD to celebrate Greater Boston’s renowned health care inventions, discuss how we maintain Massachusetts as the premier destination for health care innovation, and be part of the solutions. Start here, stay here!

Stay tuned for additional developments!

Interested in Sponsoring, Exhibiting or Speaking?
Contact us soon! Limited spots available.

Few forums exist where attendees across the spectrum of the health care community come together in one place to tackle common problems. This is a unique opportunity to promote your company, product or start-up to decision makers from all walks of health care.

Sponsorship Contact:
Christine Sierra
clbsierra(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com
978-809-9640

Exhibitor Contact:
Sarai Tsai
sarai(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)careinnovate.com

Speaking Opportunities:
Sarai Tsai
sarai(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)careinnovate.com

careinnovators is restarting after a hiatus!

We were gone for awhile working on a couple of great consulting projects in industry and academia.  Both experiences  just made it clear to us that the majority of innovation in health care is ahead of us!  And that innovation comes not only from technology breakthroughs in a single industry, but often from cross-fertilizing innovations across industries and even sectors.  In fact, I’m guessing it’s the most fertile source of health care change.

Which brings me back to the careinnovators website.  Our experiences are telling us pieces are finally coming together, and excitement around the transformation of health care is at an all time high.  But as ever, challenges remain.  That theme of cross-industry application of technology holds tremendous potential.  But many things have to go right.  The right timing, the right team, the right first product, the right approach, and the right info.  And careinnovators hopes to be a resource for those people who are tackling those opportunities.

So what are we going to do?  We’ll post about innovations that are contributing to the transformation in the health care industry.  And we’ll organize events that help move things forward (stay tuned for an imminent announcement!).

And since we’re relaunching, we decided to update our website.  We simplified our site and removed a bunch of features.  We’re starting with a clean slate.

The health care sector is undergoing big changes driven by transformative technologies inside and out.  We look forward to covering innovations, like yours!