The VA and UW will focus on the treatment of heart disease.
VA Puget Sound Health Care System is working to find new ways to use 3D printing for the diagnosis and treatment of complex heart conditions after partnering with UW School of Medicine.
For the next two years, the partners will share 3D printers, materials, software and personnel to develop new protocols for surgery planning procedures, with a particular focus on treating heart disease. This will concern such things as the 3D printing of patient-specific anatomical models, which enable medical professionals to better prepare, understand, and communicate complex operations.
The VA provides care for more than 9 million enrolled patients with 3D printing’s application per that duty gradually increasing. In 2017, the Veteran Health Administration 3D printing network was established, and since, additive technologies have been leveraged to produce a series of parts, from kidney models to specialised foot orthotics which have helped patients with type 2 diabetes avoid amputations. Meanwhile, UW School of Medicine has its own 3D printing lab that has so far produced more than 100 personalised anatomical models to inform the planning of procedures.
Now, the partners want to pool together their expertise and build on these use cases.
“Imagine the power of holding a life-sized 3D model of your own hears in your hands while your cardiologist discusses your treatment plan and walks you through your upcoming procedure step by step. This is the reality that we want for all of our patients,” commented Dr Beth Ripley, VA Puget Sound Radiologist, VHA Senior Innovations Fellow and VHA 3D Printing Advisory Committee Chair. “As the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States and one of the largest hospital-based 3D printing networks, the VA is defining how 3D printing is being used now and how it will be used in the future.”
“Beyond improving our understanding of patient’s anatomy, [3D printed models] allow us to know which catheters and replacement valves will fit, and how best to approach the particular structure. That knowledge turns into costs savings for the patients in terms of devices and procedure duration,” Dmitry Levin, Research Scientist at UW School of Medicine added. “[Working with the VA] we merge all of our collective expertise into a unified effort to offer patients personalised cardiac care based on their unique needs.
“And now that the FDA has expanded TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement) availability to patients at low surgical risk, we’ll see more cases that can benefit from 3D printed models for TAVR planning.”
