Imagine that you know a person with a disease of the liver or another organ. Imagine that there is the possibility of creating in the laboratory a model of an organ with all the features of the diseased one. Imagine now that doctors could test a surgical procedure on that model and verify its effectiveness before proceeding on the real organ. There, you have imagined the result of PRINTMED-3D. Science fiction? No, reality, thanks to 3D printing and virtual reality applied in the medical field. Affaritaliani.it Milano had Prof. Paolo Milani, director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces (CIMaINa), Department of Physics at the University of Milan, explain how such a product is possible. The prestigious Milanese university is in fact the project leader of the PRINTMED-3D project selected by the “Call Hub Research and Innovation” call promoted by the Lombardy Region’s Research, Innovation, University, Export and Internationalisation Department, which believes in personalised healthcare to the point of financially supporting the project to the tune of €3,163,089.29 (€7,272,719.43 is the total value of the project) thanks to POR-FESR 2014-2020 funds.
‘PRINTMED-3D,’ explains Prof. Milani, “aims to provide a response to the growing demand for customised medical services in the clinical, diagnostic and pre-clinical fields, in a context in which the contraction of available economic resources and the ageing of the population require the adoption of more efficient and targeted approaches to ensure the economic sustainability of the system and the quality of care. The evolution towards a personalised medicine model favoured by the availability of complex digital infrastructures (5G standard) and the need to increase the appropriateness of treatments, call for a paradigm shift in the clinical, diagnostic, pre-clinical and educational spheres. PRINTMED-3D aims to create an infrastructure for the development of enabling solutions for personalised medicine and specialised training through the combined use of virtual reality and functional additive printing (3D printing) technologies. The realisation of virtual anatomical models with a physical functional counterpart obtained through the integration of additive printing of innovative materials with intelligent fluidic systems will enable the scheduling and planning of surgical procedures, improving the effectiveness of treatments, decreasing risks for the patient and reducing operating and post-operative times.”
The project sees the collaboration of a variegated and first-rate partnership: UNIMI is the lead partner of PRINTMED-3D and will play the role of coordinating body, in particular, the Department of Physics, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces (CIMAINA), the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences ‘L. Sacco’ and the “L. Sacco” Department of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Sciences; IRCCS Fondazione Istituto Neurologico “Carlo Besta” participating with the Department of
Neurosurgery and the Besta NeuroSim Center (BNSC); Dolphin Fluidics; NRGsys; Transparent Intelligence; Kentstrapper. Thus, small, medium and large-sized realities from both the public and private sectors. A virtuous collaboration between organisations that excel in the medical, 3D printing and medical innovation sectors. A special feature of the project is the very strong interaction within it between physicists and clinical doctors and its multidisciplinary character.
‘PRINTMED-3D,’ continues Milani, “aims to create a centre of competence in Lombardy for three-dimensional medical technologies with substantial spin-offs for the regional health system, medical professional training, and the creation of high-tech entrepreneurship in the biomedical sector. The realisation of virtual models with a functional physical counterpart will enable the planning and scheduling of surgical procedures, improving the effectiveness of treatments, decreasing risks for the patient and reducing operating and post-operative times. In addition, further savings in operational and human costs will be generated by the possibility of customising treatments on the basis of data processing and simulations aimed at calibrating the treatment choices to the needs of the specific case, thus improving the outcome and avoiding the need to proceed by probabilistic choices with substantial repercussions for the reduction of litigation.”
“The project,” concludes Professor Milani, “will also provide both tangible and intangible strategic assets through the creation of a network of researchers with interdisciplinary theoretical and practical expertise, strengthened by the research and training pathway developed within PRINTMED-3D. This project will significantly contribute to the development of new and relevant professional skills, career opportunities, and employment prospects in the healthcare sector, virtual reality, and intelligent manufacturing. Thanks to PRINTMED-3D, academic and industrial players will be able to train and integrate resources with combined expertise in medicine and biomedical sciences, materials science, ICT, and virtual reality within their organizations and the Lombard economic framework, increasing their competitiveness in the global market.”
Virtual reality is rapidly expanding in the clinical field, and 3D printing is increasingly becoming an essential tool in medical applications. From the successful combination of these two technologies—enhanced by the use of intelligent fluidic technologies, which allow the reproduced organ to closely mimic the real one—an innovative and revolutionary solution is emerging, set to make a significant impact on the future of medicine.
Source:”Affari Italiani”
