Applicant company entry qualification: 

• Product or technology needs to focus on healthcare applications using 3D printing or bioprinting/bio-fabrication technologies, 3D Visualization tools (e.g. VR/AR), or a combination of these.
• The startup may be (and not limited to) software, hardware, or material oriented. 
• The startup needs to be an early stage in funding  (pre-seed, seed, or series A).

Prize:

GE Ventures will offer:

• 90 minutes of 1:1 coaching on company’s pitch
• Opportunity to pitch to the GE Ventures Healthcare Additive team
• Post-pitch session with written feedback from GE
• Unique opportunity to interact with GE’s Subject Matter Experts and investors

3DHEALS will offer: 

• Online Pitch3D opportunity (company profile and pitch video will be promoted on the homepage) with the potential of seed funding.
• 60 minute 1:1 strategy consulting with Jenny Chen
• Unique opportunity to interact with 3DHEALS expert networks and investors

Medicus Ventures will offer: 

• 30-minute second meeting pitch directly to the MV team with the potential of seed funding.
• Up to 60 minutes 1:1 coaching on company pitch and strategy from MV team. 

Cash prize pending, stay tuned…

To Enter: 

Please complete the application and send your pitch deck by Noon PST October 15th, 2018 to info@3dheals.com. We will select up to 10 startups to pitch during the In(3D)usury summit on October 17th, 2018, 1-2 PM. 

Investors/judges:

(If you would like to participate as an investor or judge for the pitch competition, please send email to info@3dheals.com)

Judges: 

 

Jenny Chen is a Harvard-trained neuroradiologist, founder/CEO of 3DHEALS, a company focusing on curating healthcare 3D printing ecosystem. She also recently joined Medicus Ventures as a general partner, focusing on investing in early-stage healthcare technology startups, in particular in the space of healthcare 3D printing and bio printing.  Her main interests include medical education, healthcare 3D printing and bio printing, and artificial intelligence. She is also a current adjunct clinical faculty in the radiology department at Stanford Healthcare.

Jessica A. Zeaske, PhD, MBA, serves as Director of Healthcare Investments at GE Ventures in Boston, MA.  At GE Ventures, Jessica focuses on Health IT, IT-enabled Health Services, and Non-Invasive Medical Technology investments.  Jessica came to GE Ventures from Lemhi Ventures, a fund investing exclusively in health care services and HCIT with over $330M under management based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  At Lemhi, Jessica developed investment hypotheses, sourced deals, ran diligence processes, and served on multiple Boards.  Prior to joining Lemhi, Jessica worked on forming and spinning out companies based on University intellectual property at University of Minnesota and Oregon Health & Science University.  Jessica began her career writing software for a start-up health care delivery company. She then moved to a merchant bank, Greenspring Advisors, where she wrote numerous business plans, evaluated, launched and invested in data-driven health care start-up companies.  Jessica received an undergraduate degree with honors from Stanford University, graduated from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health with a Master of Health Science and PhD, and completed her MBA with a focus on Healthcare Administration at Regis University.  Jessica is currently on the Board of Apervita and Arcadia, and a Board Observer at CareMerge.  She previously served on the Boards of PokitDok, PlanSource, OneHealth, Orasi Medical, and Medication Management Solutions.  Jessica stays involved with Stanford University by volunteering in various capacities, coaches early stage companies in the public health sector, and serves as a start-up judge and panelist for multiple healthcare conferences.

Josep Sanfeliu is the co-founder of Ysios Capital Partners. His career is focused on the structuring of investment deals and, in particular, those concerned with medical technology. He is currently an observer on the Endosense board and a member of MedLumics’, DermaLumics’ and SABIRMEDICAL’s boards”.

Josep’s specialties include financial evaluations, M & A and advising entrepreneurs with regard to IP matters. Josep has gained his experience in some of the most prestigious firms, starting out as an associate at Cuatrecasas in the fields of mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and intellectual property. He then went on to join the consulting firms KPMG or Eurohold Corporate Finance and focused on project innovation, business development, and venture capital.

Over the last 5 years, Josep has been working, from a pharmaceutical and healthcare perspective, in the health sector, starting this stage of his career at Almirall as the Corporate Finance and Business Development Manager. There he worked on investment projects (mergers, acquisitions, and venture capital) and business development projects (licensing, partnerships, joint ventures, etc.), both in Europe and the United States. His most recent position was that of Director General at SARDomus and steering committee member at the SAR group, where he was responsible for more than 300 professionals in the field of healthcare.

Josep holds a degree in Law from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, a Master’s degree in Law specializing in Intellectual Property and International Transactions from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States, and an MBA (Global Executive MBA) from IESE (Navarra University).

Maribel Berges is CFO/CBO and Board member of ( Spherium Biomed, S.L.) (Ferrer group), she was the founding partner of the company where she is responsible for investment management and business development. She specializes in the analysis of the value of biomedical projects and negotiation of agreements both in and out-licensing. She started her career in Almirall in R & D Engineering, developing GMP compliant production methods for new APIs in preclinical and clinical development. Later she was Director of Business Center of FBG-University of Barcelona, where she advised more than 50 entrepreneurs in writing and financing their business plans and was responsible for licensing University of Barcelona patents, negotiating several international licensing out agreements. She earned a Chemical Engineering degree from IQS (Universitat Ramon Llull), specialized in Organic Chemistry, and holds an MBA from IESE Business School.

In Spherium, she focusses in defining strategy of new projects, negotiating investment and licensing agreements and business development.

Dr. Liuís Pareras, MD and Ph.D. in Medicine, a specialist in Neurosurgery, and Global Executive MBA (IESE). Director of Healthequity SCR, a VC fund investing in biotechs and medical devices. He founded the innovation and entrepreneurship program at the Barcelona Medical Association, analyzing more than 400 business plans per year, and he has been involved in investments and follow-ons in different healthcare startups. He is a board member in several companies, including Healthequity’s investments Versantis, N-life and Minoryx. Founder and director of the Healthcare Investment Forums (>20 editions celebrated already in Barcelona, with more than 600 companies presented).

He has been an entrepreneur himself in the healthcare sector and raised capital from investors. Deeply involved in the Spanish innovation ecosystem, he is member and advisor of many healthcare innovation organizations such as Biocat (board of trustees), CIMTI.cat, BarcelonaActiva Mentoring Program, Generalitat de Catalunya-CASOST, Healthio, Ready for Growth, etc.

Author of numerous books in the field of innovation, venture capital, and health care, the last one being “Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Healthcare”, published internationally (the US and Europe). In the academic space, he teaches regularly in several business schools about healthcare innovation and venture capital (IESE, ESADE, EADA, UPC, TED speaker,…).

Natalia Moreno (La Caixa DayOne ): 17 years in business banking, it motivates me to know that every Friday I return home, week after week, with more knowledge … I love connecting People, Ideas, Talent, Capital and Building. I believe in the long term and I like the new and different Challenges, especially Innovate and Go for everything that begins with a “NEVER has been done or a can not” leading large teams where everything is possible. I enjoy a lot with my Life, my Work and with the new Technological Challenges and the Changes that we have ahead … to be able to work for a Foundation like Obra Social La Caixa, is my biggest professional reward.

17 años en banca de empresas, me motiva saber que cada viernes vuelvo a casa, semana tras semana, con mayor conocimiento… Me encanta conectar Personas, Ideas, Talento, Capital y Construir. Creo en el largo plazo y me gustan los Retos nuevos y diferentes, sobre todo Innovar e Ir a por todo aquello que empieza por un “NUNCA se ha hecho o un NO se puede” liderando a grandes Equipos en lo que todo es posible. Disfruto mucho con mi Vida, mi Trabajo y con los nuevos Retos Tecnológicos y los Cambios que tenemos por delante… poder trabajar para una Fundación como la Obra Social La Caixa, es mi mayor recompensa profesional.

Ramon Pastor is the Vice-President and General Manager of HP’s 3D Multi Jet Fusion Business. This position includes worldwide responsibility for the Research and Development, Marketing and Operations of HP’s 3D Printing Multi Jet Fusion line of solutions. This business has teams in Barcelona, Spain and Vancouver, US. Ramon is also the HP Barcelona Site Manager. Ramon joined HP in 1992. Since then he has held different positions in Operations, R&D, Marketing and Business Management. Prior to his current position, Ramon was VP & GM of the Large Format Design Business, managing the introduction of the HP PageWide XL printers’ series among other important products and solutions. Previously, he was the worldwide R&D Director for the Large Format Printing business. Ramon was responsible for the development of the first multifunction large format printers connected to the web, which represented a revolution for the technical market. He was also responsible for the complete renewal of the Printing platforms in recent years. Before this position, Ramon was the Strategic Marketing Manager responsible for this business. Ramon holds a Master in Engineering form Universitat Politècnica of Catalunya, a Business Degree by IESE in Barcelona and a Bachelor of Arts, as well as formal training in Product Development and Strategy by INSEAD and MIT.

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Pedro Martinez Seijas MD. Ph.D. MSc. MSc. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon at Donostia University Hospital (San Sebastian. Spain). HM Hospital Vigo (Spain). He is a visiting Professor in Biomedical Engineering at Mondragon University (Spain) and European Fellow Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (Bruges. Belgium). Doctorate (2015) with doctoral thesis “Variability control using 3D printing biomodels in head and neck reconstruction with auto-transplant. Clinical Process Management”. His work is focused on personalized medicine for dental implants restoration, head, and neck surgical oncologic and surgical reconstruction, cranial and maxillofacial deformities.
Clinical investigation: Personalized Medicine using 3D printing in surgical oncology, surgical auto-transplant free flaps reconstruction and cranial and maxillofacial deformities (2001-2017). Study on synthetic and natural biomaterials for biomedical applications (2003). 3D printing biomodel guided surgery  (2005-2018). Regenerative medicine: Design, Development, and experimental use of resorbable polymer plates coated with hydroxyapatite for the improvement of bone regeneration in the treatment of craniofacial fractures with critical bone defect (2008). Mixed guided surgical computer assistance with 3D printing biomodels (2009-2017). First and second Spanish hemimandible custom made prosthesis (2009). Description of new surgical procedures:  “New Technique in Funcional Neck Dissection. A variant in Oswaldo Suarez´S Manoeuvre (2010)”; “A New Facial “Wings Maxillary” Osteotomomy in a Crouzon´s Syndrome. Mixed Guided Surgical Computer Assistance with 3D Printing Biomodels (2011)” and “Polymethyl Methacrylate Custom-Made Prosthesis: A novel 3D printing-aided Fabrication Technique for Cranial and/or Orbital Reconstruction (2011)”. Dr. Pedro Martinez Seijas will be a speaker at the #3DHEALS2018 conference on April 20-21st, 2018. 
 
Jenny: When was the first encounter you had with 3D printing? What was that experience like? What were you thinking at that moment?
Pedro: First use was in 2001 and then we improved the biomodel, simulation surgery and custom-made mesh for surgery.
Now after using 3D printing since eighteen years ago, I think that it’s an important tool in complex surgical procedures.
After Vigo´s (Spain) 3DHeals in November 2017 “3D Printing in Personalized Medicine”, a new future opens in Spain for 3d printing. In this way, 3D printing has come to stay with us for the present.
Jenny: What inspired you to start your research in 3D printing?
Pedro: Starting use of 3D printing was that standard hardware could not help us for some complex patients, and in the other hand 3D printing could increase to safety in surgical procedures and we could see results before surgery using surgical simulation planning.
                                               
Oncologic Surgical simulation of resection and autotransplant reconstruction. The result after surgery CT control. – 
Is it the same stimulation?                                                                  
After the beginning, I used 3D printing for “tailored medicine” that is personalized medicine in macro level using 3D printing guides in complex surgical procedures, I could mix 3D printing with computer-assisted surgery using surgical navigation, we could use custom-made prosthesis, I could teach other medical doctors and We could explain and inform the patients of biomodels and We could improve better communication in the surgical team.
3D printing mixed with CAS and custom-made prosthesis: 3D printing biomodel simulation, logistics and fabrication custom-made prosthesis in polymethyl methacrylate.
Jenny: Who inspired you the most along this journey in 3D printing (bio-printing/bio-fabrication)? This can be a mentor, a patient, a celebrity, anyone basically. You can name more than one as well.
Pedro: The inspiration in 2001 appeared with my chief when we were seeing ahead 3D CT scan reconstruction and we were speaking about take on our hands a copy of the patient for improve simulation surgery, molding osteosynthesis plates previous surgery or make custom made prosthesis.
Jenny: What motivates you the most for your work?
Pedro: Now such the past the patients are the most motivate me for finding excellence in my work, surgical procedures and patients information.  We can avoid side effects in some complex surgeries with better surgical results.
Now I am improving regenerative surgery in oral and maxillofacial surgery osteosynthesis.
Jenny: What is/are the biggest obstacle(s) in your line of work? If you have conquered them, what were your solutions?
Pedro: The biggest obstacle is that there are a lot of medical doctors that they cannot see what 3D printing can offer to the patients. In this way, 3D heals offer a great communication channel for inform MD and people.
For the future is increasing information, a colleague teaching 3D printing and we avoid bad uses of the 3D printing. In the same way, MD must become a leader in medical 3D printing because of we responsible for its proper use.
Jenny: What do you think is (are) the biggest challenge(s) in 3D Printing/bio-printing? What do you think the potential solution(s) is (are)?
Pedro: There are a lot of people working in 3D printing and 3D bio-printing but it is our responsibility to explain the things that we can do now, what things will be probable and what things will be possible, in other words, that we must have our feet firmly on the ground and avoid creating false expectations for the patients.
Jenny: If you are granted three wishes by a higher being, what would they be?
Pedro: We never forget: humility, knowledge and common sense.
Jenny: What advice would you give to a smart driven college student in the “real world”? What bad advice you heard should they ignore?
Pedro: I think: “We must study and we can learn then we must use your knowledge and common sense for helping other people in this way, our own evolution improves your life quality.”
Jenny: If you could have a giant billboard to promote a message to millions and even billions of people in our community (i.e. healthcare 3D printing and bio-fabrication), what message would that be?
Pedro: Be careful with everything that you can do with 3D printing, think different but ask yourself:  Must I do it? Will you use 3D printing on yourself?
Jenny: What were/was the best investment you made in 3D printing/bio-printing/bio-fabrication?
Pedro: The best investment has externalized the process of 3D printing because there are a lot of suppliers in different materials with multiple options.
Jenny: What were/was the worst investment you made in 3D printing/bio-printing/bio-fabrication?
Pedro: Instead there were the worst investments they ever help me for operating in complex surgeries.
Jenny: What was/is the biggest risk you took in your career?
Pedro: The first time in 2009 when I implanted the first Spanish custom-made prosthesis for reconstructing a hemi mandible in a child. Until now this child became an adult and I see them every year and he said to me this year “each step requires a lot of effort, but it’s worth the risk, it’s worth betting one’s very life”.
                   
Custom made hemimandibular prosthesis design.          Medical grade titanium custom made
                                                                                         hemimandibular prosthesis.
In other way Eider came to me after MD said to her that they couldn’t do anything more. She was crying and was depressed for days when she received the notice. Then I thought several options for her and we spoke about them, I presented 3D printed custom made prosthesis and she said: “Ok this is the way”. After surgery she said to me: “3D printing changed my life it’s like being born again after the surgery”.
Jenny: What do you enjoy in your spare time? What are you passionate about outside of your work/3d printing?
Pedro: Medicine is my passion but in other ways I like to see soccer. I like to meet with my friends and family and speak around a table after we have a dinner while we sip good wine.
Jenny: What is your favorite quote? Why?
Pedro: “Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum” (“to err is human, but to persist is diabolical”)
 Lucius Annaeus Seneca.  Every person could err and I learn from mistakes made that they are big mountains, they humble me.
“Think different” Steve Jobs. I think that without it the evolution will not occur.
“In times of crisis imagination is more important than knowledge”. Albert Einstein. In this way for my imagination, the light of intuition can integrate more things than only knowledge.
Jenny: What does the word “3DHEALS” mean to you?
Pedro: It´s a future now: 3D printing.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Alberto Ruiz De Olano is the CTO/Founder of Optimus3D.
Q: How did you first encounter 3D printing? What was the story?
A: In 2014, we saw a metallic heat exchanger in a trade fair. The poster said “This stainless-steel part was produced in 24hours”, unbelievable we thought. We had been buying metallic parts for the automotive market for more than ten years and we never had seen anything like that. We spent one hour with the man in the stand talking about this new technology, and we saw the light.
Q: What inspired you to use or work with 3D printing?
A: We produce new solutions for problems that have always been there; sometimes faster, sometimes cheaper, and sometimes completely new compared to the current solution.
Q: What is the biggest motivation for your work?
A: Solve new problems every day. All works are different.
Q: What is the biggest challenge in your work?
A: Helping to find for our customers how they can be more efficient, not always the price is the prime deciding factor. In the medical sector, the biggest challenge is the lack of “engineered” physicians (as in the ability to engineer and design products) and the regulatory framework.

Q: How do you plan to conquer this challenge?
A: We try to work very closely with the doctor, to help him with the design. Also, we have started towards gaining the ISO13485 quality certification process. We are 3D evangelizers, and we try to carry the reality of the 3d printing building rates, materials, and average prices to the decision makers.
Q: What is your vision on the potential impact of your current work to the future of medicine?
A: Actually, we identify two very different groups of potential customers. Big market in the “Do it yourself” community for economic prosthetic products in child and low resources populations. High-value market: customized replacement (hip, knee, severe resections) and customized external prosthetic for temporal immobilization, or permanent improvement.
Q: What is the biggest change/improvement since last year this time?
A: The new HP technology produces FDA approved part to be in contact with intact skin. The price of this part allows us to start thinking about commercial solutions for some injuries.
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: About the organic design that we can use in our solutions.
Q: What is the biggest risk you took in your career?
A: I do not remember because I do not remember it as a risk, but probably was to start our 3D printing company, first we were two but now we are five and growing.
Q: What do you enjoy in your spare time?
A: Helping our community, actively participating in the local institutions, council, and sports club.
 

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Dr. Jon Zabaleta obtained his MD and PhD in Medicine from the University of the Basque Contry (UPV / EHU), Thoracic Surgeon at Universitary Hospital Donostia and Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Tecnun-School of Engineers (University of Navarra). Impulse and coordinator of the Multicenter workgroup of the Spanish Society of Thoracic Surgery (SECT) for the “use of 3D models to Improve preoperative surgical planning study and thoracic pathology in Patients With.”
Dr. Zabaleta was a speaker at 3DHEALS VIGO EVENT 2017. 
 
 

Jenny: What inspired you to use 3D printing in your work?

Jon: First of all, I was so lucky to discover the work in maxillofacial surgery that 3D printing was doing from my colleague Pedro Martinez Seijas. Some months after, we were planning a broncho-plastic procedure to preserve as much as possible of lung parenchyma in a lung cancer patient. It’s a very stressful procedure and many times we are not sure if we will be able to suture both sides of the resection. With this case, we started thinking about 3D printing to improve the preoperative study in general thoracic surgery.

Jenny: Wha is the biggest motivation for your work?

A: Our patients. They are expecting us to give the best we can, and my promise to the patients it’s the most important. We are a team of four thoracic surgeons in San Sebastian, and we are all trying to keep up-to-date in the latest techniques, studying and always trying to do our best for our patients.

Jenny: What is the biggest challenge in your work?

Jon: Without any doubt the Thoracic oncology. In this moment, lung cancer is the highest cancer-related cause in Europe and the USA, and we are still operating on only 20% of them. We have good results after surgery, but we need to improve the percentage of patients coming to the OR.

Jenny: How do you approach working with people with different backgrounds?

Jon: It’s very important to be open minded, and never judge. Everyone can be great in his area and know nothing in a new field. The most important thing is to create an environment without fears about saying anything. And with all the ideas, start creating something new, or with already existing technology, giving them a new use. It’s very important to forget the old days when the boss/chief was supposed to know everything, these days the knowledge is so wide, that nobody can know everything in every area. For real teamwork what we need is humility.

Jenny: How do you plan to conquer this challenge?

Jon: Teamwork is the key. This is our best bet. We want to work together with engineers, radiologist, and surgeons. Because when we are working together, we are improving the study quality of the case we are working with, but in addition to that, we are learning a lot of things about general radiology or general engineer science and culture. Because I realize that engineers and medicine doctors we have similar ways of working, and many times similar personalities. But we live parallel lives, and when we start mixing them, anything can happen.

Jenny: What is your vision on the potential impact of your current work to the future of medicine?

Jon: We think that after our work with 3D printing for preoperative study, it will become part of the routine for some cases. Our main goal is to determine in which cases we can perform 3D models, in which cases a virtual model can be enough, and in which cases a 3D printed model is helpful and necessary. We think that the next step will be around airway stenosis, trying to print personalized stents for airways.

3DHEALS GALICIA 2017

Jenny: What is the biggest change/improvement since last year this time?

Jon: The field of general thoracic surgery is under explored because of two big difficulties: 1) we have a lot of soft-tissue (that incurs difficulties for segmentation) and 2) we have few cases per hospital annually, which makes the learning curve difficult. The biggest change or achievement for the use of 3D printing, is the creation of a multicenter study in Spain, with 26 hospitals joining the project, and every professional showing different problems with the same goal: give the patients the best solution using already existing technology.

Jenny: What are you passionate about?

Jon: About my family. I have a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old son and I love to play with them in the afternoon and weekends. I love planning holidays with my wife and whole family because, with our work, one thing I have learned is that today we are here, but what about tomorrow? I never say no to a plan that I like. Live life fully.

Jenny: What do you enjoy in your spare time?

Jon: To stay with my family and sports: soccer, speed skating, running… and one thing that my wife and I discovered 3 or 4 years ago: escape rooms. We have a lot of fun with them and when we are going to different cities for the weekend, we always try to go to a escape room.

Jenny: What else do you want to share with us?

Jon: We find a very interesting thing with 3D printing, which on many occasions people don’t speak about because you can’t measure it and it’s not a monetary thing. When you show a 3D model to a patient, a special link between the patient and doctor is made. This model makes the patient feel special, he knows that he is not the patient of Monday or patient in room 220, he knows that for the surgeon this is a special case and we are offering him a special solution specifically built for him. And to feel this with patients, it’s something marvelous.

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Dr.  Pedro Martínez Seijas is a board certified Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon in Vigo, Spain. He also holds Master degree in Biomedical Engineering and medical direction and clinical management. Since 2003, Pedro has been working in Clinical Innovation applied to 3D printing and surgical simulation in oncological-maxillofacial reconstructive surgery and maxillofacial-skull deformities.
“The Pedro I met during our 3DHEALS Vigo event is more than titles and degrees. To me, Pedro is truly legendary in the field of healthcare 3D printing. He has been using 3D printing in his practice for 15+ years, changing many’s lives in Spain. Pedro in person is down to earth, friendly, and kind. This enabled him to be an extremely effective leader in the Spanish 3D printing community and an excellent co-organizer of the event.” – Jenny Chen, M.D.
 

Jenny: What inspired you to use 3D printing for your work?

Pedro: There are patient’s problems that we haven’t the best solution, only standard solutions. Under this condition, I started my search for personalized solutions in 2001. When Dr. Arruti and I discovered that 3D CT scan reconstruction could give us a new complementary vision of the patient’s condition and we asked ourselves: “Can we use 3D CT scan data in a physical form for surgery simulation? Then we began searching for engineers for this purpose and it was a difficult enterprise because in Spain there isn´t a specialization for healthcare.

In 2001, the bio-models price was very high, but we started working with it anyway. For our patients, that was science fiction. In our surgeries, it became a routine since 2007.

3D Printing Journey: 2001 “Patient 0” in 3D printing

3D Printing Journey: 2001 “Patient 0” in 3D printing

As time goes, the price of these bio-models became lower and it started to democratize and wide-spread it uses. Now we are in a new era for 3D printing in healthcare.

Jenny: What is the biggest motivation for your work?

Pedro: The patients and limits for their treatment was my principal motivation. I worked hard to improve this technology so that we could give our patients effective treatments that standard techniques could not.  These are working for patients based on the patients’ testimonies. My parents and education guided my life and my work. I try to improve the “magic” in my clinical practice, investigation, and teaching. There is no limit to achieving excellence.

Jenny: What is the biggest challenge in your work?

Pedro: The biggest challenge in my work is when the surgeries went wrong and there are complications. It is my obsession to find solutions and reduce/avoid complications. Clinical safety for patients is the biggest priority for me. PPPM or prediction, prevention, and personalization medicine is my mantra. 3D printing is a great tool and they are improving surgeon’s experience, resources, knowledge, and skills. 3D printing can provide surgical quality control, variability control, and can improve clinical safety.

3D Printing Journey: 2007. Pedro’s team routinely used 3D printing for head and neck reconstruction.

3D Printing Journey: 2007. Pedro’s team routinely used 3D printing for head and neck reconstruction.

Jenny: How do you approach working with people with different backgrounds?

Pedro: Based on my clinical knowledge and past clinical experiences, I believe in multidisciplinary work and I think that networking is one of the best ways to improve solutions for patients.

Jenny: How do you plan to conquer this challenge of having to work with people with different backgrounds?

Pedro: I play several different roles: oral and maxillofacial surgeon, biomedical engineer, and also a medical director. Because of this, I can speak to engineers in engineering language, speak to doctors in medical language,  and speak to medical directors in administrator’s language.

3D Printing Journey: 2009, Two hemi-mandible custom-made prostheses.

Jenny: What is your vision on the potential impact of your current work to the future of medicine?

Pedro: I think that 3D printing will be used routinely around the world very soon. My impact is very small: “like an insect impact with a car”. I try to improve the technological advances based on clinical process management, efficiency, safety, and quality control in oral and maxillofacial surgery. I think that regenerative medicine, bioprinting, big data orientated for improving personalized medicine will be with us soon. By the way, networking and multidisciplinary work using clinical process management can help with the challenges in ordering and controlling clinical variability.

3D Printing Journey: 2011, New mid facial osteotomy 3D printing and navigation surgery.

Jenny: What is the biggest change/improvement since last year this time?

Pedro: Democracy of 3D printing, and having medical directors, health system, medical doctors, surgeons, engineers, bioengineers working together.

Jenny: What are you passionate about?

Pedro: My passion is the medicine, engineering, bioengineering, clinical process management: global medicine. “Learning every day”.

Jenny: What is the biggest risk you took in your career?

Pedro: One of these (“risk”) is coming next year because I will change from Vasc Health Public Service to Galician Health Public Service and it will be a new era in my career.

3D Printing Journey: 2011, 3D PMMA customized prosthesis.

Jenny: What do you enjoy in your spare time?

Pedro: I spend my time with my wife and with our friends. My wife suffered through my science inquietude, my Ph.D. study, and the time that I spent on finding patients’ solutions. She is one of my greatest support. I also enjoy watching films ever since I was younger, because they are fascinating to me and make me relaxed. My favorites include Sci-Fi, cartoon, comedy (Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Oliver and Hardy, Harold Lloyd). I also enjoy listening to music and seeing Real Madrid or Spanish football team playing football.

Jenny: What else do you want to share with us? Good stories? =)

Pedro: When people in the surgical field say, “It has always been done this way”. My response is this, “If we only thought about how to drag the bags around, then nobody would have invented the wheel”. Then, this will make people stop to think about it a little.

I remember one case in which we must do a mandibular autotransplant free flap, the idea was a fibular free flap, but the patient had chronic lymphedema in his legs. We could not find any case like this in the literature. Then, I spoke with several trauma colleagues and learned that other colleagues had experiences in treating upper arm fractures in patients after mastectomy and axillary lymph nodes dissection. They said that complication rate in their hands using osteosynthesis plates were low, and we extrapolated the information and made mandibular reconstruction with fibular free flap autotransplant. The result of that case was successful.

I am happy when I see the patients happy with successful results, but when the results are not good I try to stay with these results. “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan”.

2016 Best Project Award in good clinical practice. University Donostia Hospital. “2003–2017 Head and Neck Reconstruction Experience”.

Pedro would like to remember and acknowledge his Masters: R. Palomero MD. DDS., J.M. RguezCortel MD. DDS., J.A. Arruti MD. DDS., F. Gorostiaga MD.

Pedro: “Masters. Thank you very much!”

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