The "black technology" of medical 3D printing has been developing rapidly in recent years. It has shown great application value in basic research of life science, clinical medicine and drug development.

In Chengdu Frontier Medical Center of Tianfu Life Science Park Phase II, there is such a high-tech enterprise focusing on the overall solution of medical 3D printing -- Sichuan TR MED-3D Additive Manufacturing Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "TR MED-3D"). + In this issue, we invited Huang Yong, the founder of TR MED-3D, to brief us about the application scene, development status and bottlenecks of medical 3D printing, as well as TR MED-3D's business areas and development strategy.

Huang Yong

Founder and CEO of Sichuan TR MED-3D Additive Manufacturing Technology Co., Ltd.

 

Mr. Huang Yong, vice chairman of Chengdu Artificial Intelligence Committee, has more than 20 years of experience in investment and business development in the medical industry. He is good at integrating industry resources, and has established scientific research cooperation relations with a number of Grade III Class A hospitals. He has accumulated rich contacts in the medical industry and has unique judgment and insight in the medical field. Founded in September 2018, TR MED-3D is committed to exploring the application of 3D printing in the medical field.

 

In July this year, the establishment of Sichuan Provincial Industry Innovation Center for Precision Medicine was approved by the Provincial Development and Reform Commission. Led by West China Hospital of Sichuan University, the Center is jointly established by many upstream and downstream enterprises and investment institutions in the precision medical industry chain.

As a matter of fact, precision medicine, covering small-molecule targeted drugs, antibody drugs, vaccines, cell therapy, medical 3D printing and other subdivided fields, has become the biggest hot spot in the pharmaceutical industry as early as the 13th Five-Year Plan period. The West China Hospital started the application for this major project as early as 2018.

It coincided with the implementation of a series of policies such as the 13th Five-Year Plan for The Development of National Strategic Emerging Industries and Made in China 2025, as well as the gradual emergence of research/transformation results in the field of medical 3D printing. With years of operation experience and business acumen accumulated in Sichuan Tianyao Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd., Sichuan Xuhui Medical Device Co., Ltd., Sichuan Guoling Medical Device Co., Ltd., Huang Yong was confident that this technology has a broad prospect, and that medical 3D printing technology will make a difference in the promotion of precision medicine, and has thus give birth to TR MED-3D.

 

 

Since the beginning of establishment, TR MED-3D's team has included authoritative experts and consultants in the field of medical 3D printing, including Academician Zhang Xingdong, a leading figure in the field of bio-materials, and Yuan Yuyu, an outstanding returnee expert in 3D printing. Under their guidance and introduction, TR MED-3D soon established good cooperative relations with well-known enterprises in the industry such as Farsoon Technologies and 3DSYSTEMS at home and abroad.

At the beginning of the enterprise development, Huang Yong's team visited a number of 3A hospitals including West China Hospital and Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital to investigate the needs of clinicians and patients in different departments for medical 3D printing. Before the investigation, he believed that medical 3D printing was a new technology for ordinary patients and clinicians in most departments, and the acceptance of the new technology might not be satisfactory. However, after the investigation was carried out, the results were unexpected.

"Clinical experts in various departments are full of imagination about the application of 3D printing in the medical field and have put forward many constructive opinions and clinical needs that are eager to be met." Huang Yong said that as the terminal of medical 3D printing products, medical institutions cannot be underestimated in promoting new products. At the same time, the clinical resources of medical institutions are also very important to medical 3D printing enterprises.

"The needs of clinicians are the orientation of enterprise product layout. The implementation of 3D printing products by clinicians on patients is not only the verification of product performance, but also an important supporting link required for medical device registration license." At this time, Huang Yong saw the broad and real market prospect of medical 3D printing in the future.

 

Huang Yong introduced that the current medical 3D printing application was divided into three levels.

The first level is non-implant printing, with non-bio-compatible materials, such as 3D printing personalized frame and 3D printing model template. So far, it has been widely used in preoperative planning and operation simulation of complex operations to help doctors propose operation plans and provide a medium for communication between doctors and patients. The second level is permanent implant products. The materials used have good bio-compatibility and are not easy to degrade, such as artificial bones and other implants. The third level is biological tissue scaffold. The materials used have good bio-compatibility and biodegradability at the same time, which can promote the regeneration and repair of bones and the like in the body.

At present, TR MED-3D has a layout at three levels.

 

 

Lung structural model 

Visualization, Digitalization and Accuracy of Complex Medical Image Information

Helping Clinical Medicine to Realize Personalized, Accurate and Minimally Invasive Diagnosis and Treatment

 

 

3D-printing orthopaedic implant 

 

 

3D-printing model template 

Surgical Planning & Medical Education

Integrating Multi-disciplines to Convert Digital Optimal Solutions into Practical Solutions

 

The implementation of 3D printing involves printing equipment, control software, modeling software, printing materials and other aspects. From the perspective of Huang Yong, the difficulties currently restricting its further development in the medical field mainly focus on the research and development of software system and printing materials.

3D printing software includes two aspects: 

One is the software control system of 3D printers, which is generally developed by printer manufacturers and improved according to user needs. The other is the 3D printing modeling software with higher personalized requirements for this kind of software, which is frequently used in the production process as well as designed and developed according to the personalized requirements of different departments for various products. This kind of software integrates various data sources, including CT, nuclear magnetic resonance and B-ultrasound, and the data processing methods are correspondingly different, so there are various types and complexity. At present, many international and domestic companies focus on the development of such modeling software, hoping to make breakthroughs for different organs or parts and break the restriction of the bottleneck on the development of medical 3D printing industrialization.

 

 

For 3D printing products applied in the medical field, the requirements for materials are rigorous. Firstly, different human organs or parts have different requirements on material properties, and the existing materials for 3D printing may not meet various clinical needs. Secondly, even if high-performance materials meeting clinical needs are successfully developed, they cannot be printed into the molded products, or the printed molded products cannot maintain a fixed shape for a long time, due to the existing 3D printing technology or 3D printing equipment.

In the future, materials with good mechanical properties, bio-compatibility and 3D-printing formability will be the focus of research in this field. Breaking through the restrictions of printing materials on the medical 3D printing industry is full of expectation!

 

Huang Yong said that, at this stage, TR MED-3D's energy and development focus was mainly on two components.

 

 

In the future, once the marketization process of personalized medical 3D printing starts, TR MED-3D will enter the fast lane in the first place.

 

Medical 3D printing has a long industrial chain and involves a wide range of fields. The professional requirements for the research and development of each subdivision field are high, while the time consumption of it is long. In Chengdu, a wealthy land, there are a number of returned entrepreneurs in the bio-pharmaceutical field, fresh blood continuously transported by the University of Electronic Science and Technology in the computer field, active support from the State Key Laboratory of Sichuan University in the bio-materials field, and West China Hospital, which is well-known throughout the country in the medical clinical field.

However, when it comes to inter-discipline such as medical 3D printing, Huang Yong said that the really needed medical engineering talents were still very scarce. At present, more and more universities and enterprises have realized the importance of 3D-printing inter-disciplinary talents, and the shortage of talents is gradually improving. For example, medical graduate students trained by West China Hospital will be more inclined to continue their education in engineering during their doctoral studies.

The cost of equipment and materials required for medical 3D printing is high. In coastal areas with good economic level, the government has issued more relevant support policies. Huang Yong expressed the hope that the Southwest government would issue similar policies and regulations in the future to provide a green channel for the approval of medical 3D printing products as far as possible and accelerate the listing; actively encourage major medical institutions to actively carry out the introduction of medical 3D printing projects, solve the charging problem of such medical products as soon as possible, so that patients can have the right to choose and use personalized 3D-printing medical devices independently; pay more attention to medical 3D printing projects in the examination and approval of government science and technology projects.

In Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone, where TR MED-3D is located, Huang Yong hopes to receive the support of the jurisdiction government and medical institutions in the zone. He hopes that the government will adopt a "one-door" approach to implement various policies or apply for projects in order to speed up the process of building a 3D printing center in connection with medical institutions in supporting or assisting the development of enterprises.

Sichuan TR MED-3D Additive Manufacturing Technology Co., Ltd. 

 

 

Established in 2018, Sichuan TR MED-3D Additive Manufacturing Technology Co., Ltd., whose headquarters is located in Building E9, Chengdu Frontier Medicine Center, Chengdu Frontier Medical Center, is a high-tech enterprise focusing on the overall solution of medical 3D printing. The Company is committed to exploring the application of 3D printing in the medical field. Taking "brand building, innovation leading and all coverage operation" as the strategic development idea, taking the industrialization of medical 3D printing as the theme, taking the technical needs of industrial development as the orientation, and taking the actual needs of clinical application scenarios as the breakthrough point, the Company actively introduces academician (expert) teams, establishes high-level talents and scientific and technological innovation platforms at home and abroad, and creates a medical 3D printing ecosystem with collaborative innovation of "medicine, industry, university, research and application". The Company mainly focuses on the research, development, production and promotion of medical 3D printing equipment, materials, medical device products and 3D printing related radiomics, to provide an overall solution for clinical 3D printing.

Core Technology and Core Products: The Company takes 3D printing technology as its core, based on promoting the development of new 3D printing technology in the medical field. 3D printing technology is a technical process that generates three-dimensional entities through computer control by adopting continuous physical layer superposition and layer-by-layer addition of materials, mainly including melt deposition molding technology, photo-curing molding technology, selective laser sintering technology and direct metal laser sintering technology. As a rapid molding technology, 3D printing technology provides an efficient solution for fast and accurate personalized manufacturing. At the same time, 3D printing technology is widely used in the medical field for solving the natural matching between personalized and complicated production technology and medical diversification and accurate medical treatment. The main products include 3D printing medical models, 3D printing glasses, 3D printing surgical template. And the follow-up research and development of Class II and Class III medical devices with clinical value will continue. The Company has now applied for over 30 patents, obtained 21 authorized patents, obtained 3 product registration certificates, and many products and projects under research.