Stratasys & Glennon Children’s Hospital open 3D printing Centre of Excellence

Applied technology solutions provider Stratasys has teamed up with SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri to open a 3D printing “Centre of Excellence”, the company has announced.

The centre is open now and is designed to accelerate advancements in pre-surgical preparedness, medical research and patient treatment. By using Stratasys’ 3D printing technology, the centre is able to develop and share best-practices throughout a range of specialties such as neurosurgery, orthopaedics, and cardiac treatment.

SLUCare – the physician practice at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital – is encouraged to utilise 3D printing technology to explore new approaches for patient care.

Steven Burghart, president of SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, said: “As a leading paediatric care and academic research facility, we’re committed to continuous improvement by harnessing cutting-edge tools like 3D printing.”

“Our Centre of Excellence stems from a long-standing partnership with Stratasys, working together to raise the bar in all that’s possible in patient care.” Burghart continued.

Dr Alexander Lin, co-founder of the 3D Printing Centre and surgical director, said: “3D printing provides increased confidence in the operating room and results in a faster, more efficient operation. In a recent plastic surgery reconstruction of a skull defect, we used a 3D printed intraoperative guide that matched the skull defect precisely. Without hesitation, we could use this guide to create a precisely shaped bone graft that perfectly matched the skull defect. In the past, this process would have been estimated, which can lead to longer surgery with higher risk of brain and blood loss, and a less precisely fitted reconstruction.”

Scott Rader, GM of Healthcare Solutions at Stratasys said: “Numerous advances have expanded treatment options for patients, particularly those who need highly advanced medical care. Stratasys depends on our clinical partners to demonstrate patient benefit using 3D printing in training and the flow of patient care. To fully realise Dr. Lin’s vision of optimising treatment, there needs to be greater collaboration between industry and thought leading institutions to create standards, best-practices and to develop the fact base on how to get the most from a hospital-based 3D printing program. Led by some of the industry’s most respected medical professionals and backed by Stratasys technology, SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital’s new Centre of Excellence will quickly become the gold standard that demonstrates all that can be accomplished with medical 3D printing.”