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RMIT 3dHeals Melbourne Event

The RMIT Additive Manufaturing Team.

Yesterday evening we had the pleasure of presenting at a 3D printing event hosted by RMIT’s Additive Manufacturing Precinct and organised by Sarah Fink and 3dHeals. It started with a tour of the facility followed by an introduction by Prof Ivan Cole on RMIT’s research strategies including some fantastic work in materials technology and lattice design for medical implants.

Don’t bother asking why.
We don’t know.

Jason Chuen from our very own UniMelb Austin Health 3dMedLab was up next to share his insights on Medical Applications of 3D Printing including anatomical visualisation, surgical planning, procedural simulation and teaching — together with an emphasis on the need for more cross-disciplinary work between clinicians and engineers.

Next up was Paul D’Urso, founder of Melbourne 3D printing startup Anatomics was next with more information on how just-in-time manufacturing and personalised manufacturing can save transport and operating theatre resources.

This was followed by Neil Anderson, CEO of Oventus Medical who have developed and commercialised a personalised oral mandibular advancement and airway appliance for obstructive sleep apnoea (what a mouthful! 😉) to replace standard CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) masks. Together with CSIRO’s Lab 22 they used 3D printing throughout the prototyping and early manufacturing phases and still rely heavily on it for production and redesign.

Neurostimulation for prosthetic activation
— Dr Anita Quigley, UOW.

Last but not least was Anita Quigley, Senior Research Fellow from the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute who wowed the audience with her work on patient-derived stem cells for 3D printing. Like many other researchers in this field she has had to transition from being a biologist to a materials scientist, highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of this work.

3D Bioprinting with Dr Anita Quigley, UOW.

It was great to catch up with so many like-minded researchers and enthusiasts, as well as tour the Additive Manufacturing Precinct at RMIT. Thankyou everyone who came and we hope to see in in October at 3dMed Australia 2018! Remember — get those abstracts in ASAP!

Touring the facilities at RMIT’s AMP.
So much room… so jealous… and even the
fanciest facilities still use the old Makerbots.
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Ultimaker S5 Arrives

At long last our brand new Ultimaker S5 printer has arrived — we’ve been having lots of fun testing it out. Thanks to Australian suppliers Imaginables for getting it to us so soon after release, though we had to reach deep into our research grant savings jar to pay for it.

Gordon had the pleasure of unboxing and he could not resist making a big deal of it — check out our Instagram Story!

Somehow it has been christened with a name — Ultron 2018. Not sure about that one…

The good news is that the build volume is HUGE and we look forward to giving it a whirl. The dual extruder mechanism has been rock solid for the first few prints and having soluble PVA supports is just heavenly.

One tip — do a firmware update out of the box. We had problems syncing and connecting to Cura Connect until that was done.

Out of the box and ready to roll.
AV Fistula model
Printing one of A/Prof Tracie Barber’s AVF models.
The Ultimaker S5 arrives in its box!
Soluble PVA supports — Yay!
Ossicles
3D Printed Ossicles — Enough to make @DrEricLevi salivate.
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ARC Training Centre Application Successful!

We are excited to announce that our joint submission to the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre Grant to build Australia’s Medical Implant and MedTech capacity using 3D Printing has been successful! This will allow us, together with The University of Melbourne, Flinders University, Griffith University and multiple other project partners to fund post-graduate students who will spend time engaging in university-based training as well as workplace-based training in clinical and industry settings.

Continue reading “ARC Training Centre Application Successful!”

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3dMedAu18 Call for Abstracts Open!

Submit your abstract now!The 3dMed Australia 2018 Conference abstract submission is now open. Please make sure that you read the Abstract Submission Guidelines before making your submission using the Electronic Form by the Close of Business on Friday 31 August 2018.

We welcome papers in the following areas:

  • Clinical Applications of 3D Imaging & Analysis, 3D Modelling or 3D Printing (including Bioprinting)
  • The Medical Industry, Technology and Clinical Interface: Collaboration, development and commercial issues in the growing 3D MedTech Industry
  • 3D Medical Technologies for Patients and the Community: Exploring how 3D Technologies are influencing society, community and trends in patient care. We encourage these papers to be targeted for a diverse and non-scientific audience.
  • Simulation and Teaching: The use of 3D visualisation, modelling, and printing for simulation and education of clinicians, patients, and medical device development.
  • Regulation and Ethics: Managing 3D datasets, software models and additive manufacturing can be a minefield for regulatory authorities and existing intellectual property legislation. Share your insights into how we are navigating this Brave New World.
  • Virtual and Augmented Reality: Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality hardware is now at a tipping point of reliability, affordability, and adaptability with rapid growth in its application in teaching, simulation, clinical care and therapy.
  • Other: There are plenty of topics which we are sure we have not thought of. Please demonstrate your innovation and enthusiasm by leading us into the unknown unknowns of 3D Medical Technologies!

We will be assigning worthy projects to Poster and Podium Presentations, so please be prepared for both, and make sure that you read our Submission Guidelines.

Good luck, and start writing!

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3dMedLab makes a strong showing at #RACS18

The Austin 3dMedLab was out in force at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists Annual Scientific Congress in Sydney recently.

With 3 posters and one presentation, 3D technology is certainly making its mark in the operating theatre and surgical management.

We were also very proud to see the strong focus on clinical leadership, communication and diversity. Continue reading “3dMedLab makes a strong showing at #RACS18”

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3dMedLab on Seven News

In the lead-up to our presentations at the RACS Annual Scientific Congress #RACS18 we were interviewed by Georgia Main and Hope Wilson from Seven News Melbourne about our work in pre-surgical 3D printing. Our papers identified how medical 3D printing improves patient and carer understanding of their disease, leads to better satisfaction and engagement in medical care, assist surgeons to train for and plan complex surgery, and improve outcomes by reducing operating time, and blood loss.

Great to see our team featured like this — special thanks to Jas, Judy, Shanan and Nathan as well as Julia, David and Julie for working behind the scenes.

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3DMed Australia 2018 Call for Abtracts Coming Soon!

Register | Abstracts | Program | Speakers | Venue | Supporters

lecture photo

Planning for the 3dMed Australia 2018 Conference is well underway and we will be issuing a Call for Abstracts soon. If you are working on a 3D Printing, 3D Segmentation, 3D Modelling, 3D Visualisation, Virtual or Augmented Reality, Self-Built Simulation project or just something really cool in Biomedical Engineering to show off, please think about submitting!

We will be assigning worthy projects to Poster and Podium Presentations, so please be prepared for both.

Good luck, and start planning!

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Better Care Victoria Proposal

OK, so we aren’t professional videographers… but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t passionate about expanding the use of 3D technology to improve patient care!

We’ve put in our submission to the Better Care Victoria Innovation Fund to build our 3D Medical Imaging service. This will improve the quality of our CT and MRI scans to show anatomy and pathology in 3D, and help us create better, more useful 3D prints for our patients and doctors.

Time to keep our fingers crossed and hope we get selected for funding!

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49ers YPO Event – Rediscover Melbourne

Today we had the pleasure of speaking at the Australian YPO & 49ers event “Rediscover Melbourne” along with Professor Ravi Savarirayan (Paediatrician, Geneticist, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Victorian Clinical Genetics Service) and Professor Stephen Fox (Pathologist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre).

The session was opened by Federal Health Minister the Hon Greg Hunt MP, and we covered a wide range of topics from personalised medicine, epigenetics, cancer biomarkers, tailored tumour immunotherapy, medical innovation, artificial intelligence and neural networks, 3d printing, and funding for medical research.

Thank you to Ken and Gail Roche, Craig and Caron Easton for inviting us, Peter Anastasiou for chairing the session, and special thanks to Lindsay Fox for a rousing speech.