Johnson & Johnson Personalizes Healthcare with Additive Manufacturing
Additive manufacturing – or 3D printing, as it’s more commonly known – has gone through the stratosphere in terms of popularity in the last few years.
As quality and scale have improved and the prices of the machines have tumbled, an increasing number of hobbyists and businesses are discovering the nearly unlimited potential of this exciting and futuristic process.
What would have probably gotten you burned as a witch just a few decades ago, is now a rapidly proliferating and credible manufacturing process that is empowering producers of everything from models to entire buildings, and even food, to build products quicker, cheaper, and more efficiently than ever before.
Healthcare
One of the industries, however, that stands to benefit the most from additive manufacturing is healthcare.
For example, when a patient needs a replacement joint or even an entire limb, the process would historically have been to measure their requirements and find the best product in the catalogue that most closely matches their size. Because of the costs associated with manufacturing and delivering a truly bespoke prosthetic, most people and healthcare providers were priced out of taking advantage of this option.
However, with the advent and proliferation of additive manufacturing a bespoke prosthetic can be manufactured for a completely negligible cost. All you need is someone with the CAD skills to design the prototype model after which it can be printed out at any compatible machine. Because the files for the 3D model are 100% digital, the designer can be anywhere in the world, with none of the usual supply chain issues of shipping small orders.
Pharmaceutical brands can even use additive manufacturing to create small batches of medicine. As demand for personalized medicines, tuned to the biology and needs of individual patients, increases, additive manufacturing is making these treatments more affordable and accessible than ever before.
Johnson & Johnson
As one of the biggest brands in the pharmaceutical and healthcare business, Johnson & Johnson has long been considering the benefits and incredible opportunity presented by innovative additive manufacturing processes.
To this end, the New Brunswick, N.J. headquartered healthcare brand formed a partnership with information technology giant, HP to advance the research and development of additive manufacturing as a process for creating personalized healthcare products for its millions of global customers.
Focused firmly on the need to create healthcare products that are tailored to the needs of individual people, Johnson & Johnson and HP are beginning their partnership by developing a new suit of personalized instruments and software for patient-specific health devices. As the first stepping stone on the road to completing its goals for additive manufacturing this stage of the partnership will blossom into a major overhaul in the production process and supply chain of products in orthopedics, eye health, and many other sectors of the healthcare business.
Since the formation of that partnership, Johnson & Johnson established a 3D printing medical lab in Singapore.
J&J Singapore manage the Point-of-Care Lab on-site at the National University Hospital (NUH). The first of its kind in Singapore, this bespoke 3D printing medical lab empowers Johnson & Johnson biomedical engineers to work closely with clinicians on the coalface of healthcare to design personalized anatomical models for pre-operative planning and surgical simulation which can ultimately cut surgical time in half.
"The Johnson & Johnson 3D Printing Point of Care (POC) is here to serve the demand of producing customized 3D medical models on site or in proximity to hospitals," said Johnson & Johnson Singapore. "Launched in 2021, the Singapore POC begins with anatomical models customized to patient scans with a 7-day turnaround time as our key service offering. The road ahead will see the lab evolve its offerings to include sterilizable models and other 3D printing products while striving to provide best-in-class service and cutting-edge technology, leveraging the J&J global 3D Printing platform."
Some recent use cases of the technology at the 3D printing lab include a femur and tibia in a bone-like material for practice in sawing, drilling, and filing, a segment of the spine in hard and soft resin for surgery planning, and a chest wall tumor printed in two colors for pre-operative planning.
Final Thoughts
From creating bespoke prosthetics and personalized medical treatments, to helping surgeons better plan their operations, additive manufacturing at Johnson & Johnson has clearly come a long way since it teamed up with HP.
This fascinating manufacturing process has the potential to truly transform the way we treat some of the world’s worst illnesses and most debilitating conditions and all of us in the manufacturing business should be keeping a close eye on the technology which makes it possible.
Learn more about how you can utilize additive manufacturing at Connected Manufacturing Forum 2022, being held in July at the Rancho Bernardo Inn, San Diego, CA.
Download the agenda today for more information and insights.