Idea to Implementation: Organization and Staffing of A Multidisciplinary 3D Printing Team

Hui Jenny Chen, MD and Michelle Gabriel, MS, MBA
(This blog is adapted from our recent publication A Roadmap from Idea to Implementation: 3D Printing for Pre-Surgical Application: Operational Management for 3D Printing in Surgery)

The creation and use of a 3D printed model is a process that starts with a patient and ends with an operation. The following chart shows the main steps needed to create a 3D printed pre-surgical model for a hypothetical case for cardiac surgery based on best practices of multi-disciplinary collaboration described in the literature. [3] The steps are chronologically arranged. These steps include identifying a need, having a cross-functional meeting, acquiring and processing the image, making and checking the model, and finally using the model. Each role is designed for a particular participant involved in this process, such as the cardiologist, the surgeon, and the radiologist. The chart details the responsibilities of each member at every step of the process. This chart can be used as a basis for understanding the requirements of time and personnel needed to create 3D printed models for medical applications.

Idea to Implementation: Knowing the Unknown — Regulatory and Legal Issues Related to Pre-surgical Applications Using 3D Printing