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Right Turn: Health care solutions on demand through 3D printing

by | Apr 21, 2017

3D printing is a topic we’ve covered before at Signals. It’s still hot and trendy, and still making the cut on top technology lists.

Back in 2012, Chris Anderson, the former editor-in-chief of Wired, predicted that 3D printing “will be bigger than the web.” Given that good 3D printers are now cheap enough (US$150) to be affordable for home use and that everyone from shoe companies to airplane engineers to the space station are using them, it looks like Anderson might be right.

But what advances are taking place in regenerative medicine? We already have flexible 3D-printed scaffolds that could be used to mend broken bones, and 3D-printed prosthetics.

According to the organizers of “Printing the Future of Therapeutics in 3D,” bioprinting is a potential solution to our growing health-care needs. If you’d like to hear more about replacement organs being 3D-printed using a patient’s own cells (no “waiting lists or organ rejection”) and to contemplate the ethical challenges that may arise, there’s a free open session on Friday, May 5 from 2-7 p.m. at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. Register here.

For a preview of what you might hear at the session, watch this TEDx Talk by Tamer Mohamed on 3D printing human tissue. He’s the President and CEO of Aspect Biosystems, a Canadian company co-hosting the above event, along with UBC and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.

 

 

Our regular feature, Right Turn, appears every Friday and we invite you to submit your own blog to info(at)ccrm.ca. We encourage you to be creative and use the right (!) side of your brain. We dare you to make us laugh! Right Turn features cartoons, photos, videos and other content to amuse, educate and encourage discussion.

As always, we welcome your feedback in the comment section.

 

 

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Stacey Johnson

Stacey Johnson is the editor of Signals and a contributor. For 25 years, Stacey has been providing strategic communications counsel to government, corporate, technology and health organizations. She began her career at the CTV Television Network and then moved to Hill & Knowlton Canada where she advised clients in a variety of industries and sectors. Stacey is the Vice President, Communications and Marketing for CCRM, a leader in developing and commercializing regenerative medicine-based technologies and cell and gene therapies. She has a Master's degree in Public Relations. You can follow her on Twitter @msstaceyerin.

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