Following the cautionary news from the FDA and ECRI about the possible health hazards of 3D printing,

James Spencer, Data Scientist at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“Healthcare is slow to adapt to change, sometimes taking years or even decades to adopt the ‘next big thing’. Therefore, it’s easy to see when a new revolutionary technology is making its way over to change healthcare. We’ve seen the impact of big data and AI, now is the time for 3D printing.

“The promise of 3D printing is many fold. It allows for surgical tools and solutions to be customized to each patient’s particular anatomy, and allows for quick and adaptive changes to devices such as prosthetics. However, perhaps most importantly, it allows for on-site production of devices — completely eliminating the expensive problems that arise from supply chain issues. Need a device urgently? Make it! Simple, right?

“Maybe not. The FDA and watchdog ECRI have cautioned that 3D printing may be one of the top technology health hazards of 2021 due to a lack of regulation and expertise.

“Thus, the road ahead for 3D printing may still be long and arduous, with numerous regulatory checks and balances that will need to be implemented at healthcare’s glacial pace. All is not doom and gloom, however. GlobalData is currently predicting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16–20% across the entire 3D printing market. When 3D printing finally matures in the healthcare space, GlobalData expects to see similar explosive growth.”