Home-AMA: Healthcare Printed to Fit: Carnegie University and the Rise of Personalized Medicine Through 3D Technology
3D Printing for Healthcareis the topic of our next event, AMA: Healthcare on June 4th.
Few technologies have moved as quietly, yet as persistently, into clinical spaces as 3D printing. What once belonged exclusively to engineering labs has gradually found its footing in operating rooms, medical schools, and patient consultations.
Rand Kittani, resident physician in general surgery atStanfordand founder ofCIM3D, has been part of that transition, not as a passive observer, but as someone actively building the infrastructure that connects printing technology to patient outcomes.
Printing That Meets the Patient Where They Are
The appeal of 3D printing in medicine is not simply that it produces things faster. It is that it produces things differently, shaped around individual anatomy, specific conditions, and the particular circumstances of each patient. Surgical guides, spinal implants, dental devices, orthopedic casts, and breast prosthetics are among the applications already in use today, each representing a shift away from one-size-fits-all solutions toward something more responsive.
At Carle Illinois, Kittani launched CIM3D to give that work a home. The lab brought together printers, materials, and collaborative research projects, and it served as a testing ground for ideas that connected classroom learning to clinical reality.
One such project produced a 3D printed surgical guide for orbital floor fractures, a delicate procedure involving the thin bone beneath the eye socket. The guide was built to support surgeons in navigating anatomy that is difficult to visualize intraoperatively, particularly in settings where case volumes are low or access to specialized planning tools is limited. The intended beneficiary was not just the surgeon, but the patient in a rural clinic who might otherwise wait weeks for a customized solution to arrive from an outside vendor.
Closing the Gap Between Technology and Treatment
Two research efforts led by Kittani’s team illustrate a recurring challenge: the gap between what 3D printing can do and what patients are willing or able to accept.
Source: 3D Printing Industry
