Apollo Hospitals partners with Anatomiz3D Medtech to establish hospital 3D printing labs in India

The Apollo Hospitals Group and Anatomiz3D Medtech announced a collaboration for design and printing of complex implants. Apollo Hospitals and Anatomiz3D would take the lead in a pioneering initiative to establish Hospital 3D-printing labs in India for 3D printed implants that would enable doctors to visualise and print implants for complicated cases. The first of these would be launched at Apollo Health City, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad.

The Hospital 3D printing labs would provide medical 3D printing services for better healthcare, through the creation of anatomical models for pre-surgical planning and education, patient-specific cutting and drilling guides, and customized implants and implant molds.

Anatomiz3D uses technology that has been proven in over 1000 cases. A multi-disciplinary team consisting of Biomedical Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, AM Engineers, 3D Designers will work with Apollo Hospitals medical and surgical talent in the Hospital 3D-printing labs.

The lab will provide Anatomical Models that are life-size replicas of a patient’s anatomy, accurately reconstructed from their CT/MRI scans into 3D models, which can be created in multiple materials, colours, opacities and hardness to provide advanced 3D visualization for pre-surgical planning and patient communication; Implants and Molds that are custom designed to perfectly match the defect region in a patient, ensuring the ideal aesthetic and functional fit. 3D printed in biocompatible material; and, Surgical guides and tools that fit on a predetermined area of a patient’s bone and guides a surgical saw or drill in a pre-planned direction, ensuring a precise surgical outcome.

Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “We are proud to once again be the pioneers in bringing the latest in medical technology to benefit our patients. It would not be wrong to say that with the Hospital 3D-printing labs, the future of healthcare is here! Personalisation of healthcare is the new mantra and advances in genomics and precision medicine are driving personalised prevention and treatment. From specialised medicines for targeted therapies to customised implants and prosthetics, 3D-printing technology is transforming the medical environment providing a fast, accurate and economical solution to take medical care to the next level! As healthcare evolves, 3D-printing will play an important part of this future transformation.”

Advances in 3D printing technology today produces customized, lighter, stronger, safer and higher performing products with reduced lead times and lower costs. This gives doctors with a better understanding of their patients and improves patient comfort level with products that are designed especially for their anatomy.

Patient-specific design of implantable devices and surgical tools will help optimize surgical processes and costs. In areas such as spinal surgery, customised 3D-printing will add value to personalized medicine, enhancing pre-operative planning, leading to shorter operation times and helping to reduce risk for the patient. 3D-printing will also help improve the skills of the new generation of surgeons with a better understanding of the disease involved. This is just the beginning and as the technology continues to develop, we will see the unlocking of the full potential of 3D-printing in healthcare, says Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group.

Ms Firoza Kothari, Co-founder and CTO Anatomiz3D said, “Ever since 2015, Anatomiz3D has believed in the potential of 3D Printing in personalizing healthcare and has seen itself follow a path to translate its vision to a reality. Our strategic collaboration with Apollo Hospitals, a progressive organization and one of the pioneers in adopting new technologies early on that are beneficial to its patients, is a strong step towards such large scale translation. Over the years, we have had the opportunity to work with multiple clinicians associated with Apollo Hospitals, and it is a moment of pleasure and pride for us to bring this technology to them directly in their facility, to use in their practice as well as explore in research and development. Together, Apollo Hospitals and Anatomiz3D aim to make customized medical devices easily accessible to patients, for an enhanced quality of life”