Episode #103 | Design for Medical 3D Technology (Virtual Event)

Healthcare 3D printing is moving fast, and design is leading the way. In this episode, we explore how advanced CAD, simulation, and automation are enabling patient-specific implants, multi-material tissue-like structures, AI-powered prosthetics, and fully custom pediatric seating. Beyond the printer, human-centered design and smart workflows are turning ideas into devices that improve patient care. 

We start with the biology. Orthopedic engineer Matthew Shomper of Not a Robot Engineering, LatticeRobot, and Allumin8 explains why stress shielding sets up decades of problems and shows how patient-specific scaffolds can be generated in minutes. Analyze intact versus defect states, compare strain fields, and synthesize a topology- and strain-matched lattice tuned to a person’s real loading. Swap patterns, change valency, target grafting, and even plan for resorbable polymers as bone fills in. It is a shift from “stronger” to “more biologically honest.”

Then we open the toolbox. With volumetric and implicit design approaches explored by Rob MacCurdy at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Matter Assembly Computation Lab, design moves from surfaces to functions that define geometry, material, and behavior together. Think functional grading across a dogbone, gyroids blended between materials, or lattice struts whose composition varies along their length to steer buckling. The same logic can drive multiple printers and processes, enabling surgical models and tissue-like parts that span from soft to structural in a single build.

The payoff comes at the point of care. In prosthetics, comfort is the foundation. Joshua Steer, Founder and CEO of Radii Devices, shows how data-driven rectification gives clinicians an informed starting point they can refine. Nathan Shirley of HP explains how automation turns that interface into a robust, production-ready socket with a single request. No brittle CAD models. No days in design. And in pediatric seating, Alexander Geht of Testa-Seat shows how lightweight, water-cleanable, fully custom supports help children eat with family, attend school, and travel without a van full of gear.

Validation, reimbursement, and regulation still lag behind what is technically possible. But with open toolchains, integrated simulation, and outcomes data, patient-specific devices are moving from heroic one-offs to dependable care. Subscribe, share this with a clinician or engineer who should hear it, and tell us the one custom device you wish existed. What would you build next?

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