Point of Care Device Printing Gets BIG Boost

Ricoh USA, Inc. and Materialise have partnered to expand access to Point of Care 3D printing.

The partnership combines Materialise’s software solutions with RICOH 3D’s equipment and distribution infrastructure for Healthcare.

According to the company RICOH 3D for Healthcare is a “HIPAA-compliant, ISO 13485 certified 3D medical manufacturing center for the development, design and production of 3D-printed anatomic models.” The companies are bringing together the software and 3D printing in both Ricoh’s centralized production facility and Ricoh’s Point of Care facilities.

Bryan Crutchfield is the vice president and general manager of Materialise North America. Crutchfield commented, “Outside of large academic medical centers, physician and patient access to 3D printing applications has been limited.”

Crutchfield continued, “This is often due to a lack of resources and technical knowledge to implement and operationalize the technology in the hospital environment. This partnership with Ricoh brings a large managed services infrastructure, which will enable hospital systems to more quickly and affordably implement and scale 3D technology for their physicians and patients. We are excited to partner with Ricoh to bring our end-to-end software platforms to support 3D planning and 3D printing applications at the Point of Care.”

Ricoh has engaged in other partnerships to further its goal of expanding access to RICOH 3D for Healthcare. Ricoh has partnered with Merge by Merative, a provider of medical imaging solutions. Ricoh has also partnered with Stratasys to utilize its 3D printing technology and materials.

Gary Turner is managing director of additive manufacturing North America for Ricoh USA. Turner spoke to OTW about the goals for the partnership for the upcoming year. “The goal is to collaborate with partners, like Materialise, to develop new approaches to make this game-changing technology accessible to all.”

“We will work to merge our strengths to determine better methodologies as we continue to expand our partnership. Through our collaboration, we will be able to tailor our Point of Care solutions to meet unique hospital and health system needs, such as volumes and specialties. Like our solutions, there is no one-size-fits-all for creation of Point of Care Managed 3D Printing Services.”