3dMedLab came about after discussions about the need for a more co-ordinated and organised approach to 3D Printing Resources throughout The University of Melbourne and in particular the availability of this technology to Clinician-Researchers at hospitals associated with the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.
After a very pleasant Friday-afternoon multidisciplinary meeting in late 2014 at the venerable Prince Alfred Hotel the concept of an open and collaborative 3D Printing facility was born.
Between Jason Chuen from Austin Health’s Department of Vascular Surgery, David Flanders from Melbourne University Research Platforms, Research Bazaar, and Paul Mignone from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, we held the inaugural 3dMed Symposium on the 14th of April 2015.
This was a great event and allowed many biomedical and engineering researchers to hear about projects using 3D printing and network with each other.
After that time we launched a program of research and education encompassing
- creation of wound simulation models
- setting up a 3D Printing facility at Austin Health
- teaching and training clinicians and researchers in 3D segmentation
- exploring the future dimensions of 3D Printing in Medicine
- describe and share 3D Printing case studies
This culminated in our 2016 #3dMed Symposium held in conjunction with Research Platforms and Austin Health’s ResearchFest which was a great success.
Since then we have expanded the number of medical specialties and researchers that we work with across multiple Melbourne hospitals as well as developing nation-wide and international partnerships.