Inside IU Health’s 3D Print Studio: Faster Surgeries, Better Outcomes

The IU Health 3D Print Studio, one of the first hospital-based, FDA-cleared 3D printing programs in the country, gives our physicians an opportunity to create patient-specific anatomical models through the IU Health system and not a third-party vendor.

"For us in orthopedic oncology, we've been using 3D printed products for a while now," Dr. Christopher Collier, musculoskeletal oncology division chief, said. "The idea that we could start to do that here locally within our institution is really wonderful from our standpoint because we can be more involved in the process. The more of this we're able to do in-house and the less that we're doing with third party vendors, it's going to be a tremendous cost savings for both the system and the patients."

These intricate models play a significant role in offering the highly skilled care patients expect from IU Health through aiding in pre-surgery planning, patient education and even cost savings for both the patient and the system. Dr. Avinash Mantravadi, associate professor of otolaryngology - head & neck surgery, said time is of the essence for most of his patients.

"Among the most important things about having a print lab here, oftentimes, especially for cancer surgery, we don't have many treatment options other than surgery first," Mantravadi said. So, when we see a patient, we're just trying to get them into surgery as fast as possible."

Mantravadi said the time care teams and therefore patients save by having an onsite lab makes a significant difference when surgeons are trying to operate on a patient quickly.

"Over the years that our print labs here have worked, we have been able to get models done in as fast as 24 hours which means we can see a patient, have them in surgery next week, but still have that model ahead of time to do some of the same things that we're shooting for," Mantravadi said. "The savings that we get by doing these things in-house is tremendous."

Along with cost savings, another area the 3D Print Studio and the models are helping to improve is patient education.

"A lot of what we do is complex head and neck surgery here," Mantravadi explained. "Oftentimes patients will come in with advanced conditions where you have to perform procedures that are really hard to digest for a lot of patients. All these patients come with their own imaging studies, so our ability to print models in-house allows us to have things that are physically in our hands that we can talk to them about when it comes to their surgeries."

As 3D printing grows in popularity within hospital systems around the country, IU Health's ability to offer these services to its team continues to set us apart.

"I think having an in-house 3D print lab puts us on the frontlines of a lot of the techniques that we would consider to be cutting edge in the field," Mantravadi said.