Teleporting Medicine with 3D Printing: Dr. Stephen Ryan of PolyUnity (Episode #108 Shownotes)

Category: Influencer Interviews,podcast
blank blank Mar 14, 2026

In 2014, a medical student named Stephen Ryan read about NASA 3D printing a replacement part on the International Space Station. Engineers sent nothing more than a design file via email, and suddenly, a physical object was in orbit to solve a problem. “That’s teleporting,” he thought. At the same time, during rotations through rural Newfoundland and Labrador, he walked into small hospitals with older equipment where replacement parts were not readily available. He was witnessing the frayed end of supply chains. If NASA could do this in space, why couldn’t hospitals do something similar on Earth? Hospitals rely on equipment that often breaks down, wears out, or simply does not exist for the specific problem at hand, especially in remote regions where supply chains move slowly. From missing parts on aging machines to safety fixes that require expensive capital projects, care teams often patch things together while patients wait. Dr. Stephen Ryan, co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of PolyUnity, set out to change that reality by building a platform that lets hospitals “teleport” qualified 3D printed parts without becoming manufacturers themselves. In this conversation with host Dr. Jenny Chen, Dr. Stephen Ryan talks honestly about what it was like to respond to the pandemic with a local print farm, to watch the red tape snap back afterward, and to leave clinical practice so he could stand in the middle as a bridge between the people who care for patients and the engineers who design the tools they rely on.

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Home » Healthcare 3D Printing and Bioprinting Blogs » Teleporting Medicine with 3D Printing: Dr. Stephen Ryan of PolyUnity (Episode #108 Shownotes)
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This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. The views expressed do not constitute engineering, medical, or financial advice. The technologies and procedures discussed may not be commercially available or suitable for every case. Always consult with a qualified professional

About Our Guest

Dr. Stephen Ryan is a physician and entrepreneur, and the co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of PolyUnity, a Canadian health tech company focused on lowering the barriers for hospitals to adopt 3D printing through its i3D platform and solutions. His work centers on building software, quality systems, and distributed print capacity so that hospitals can reliably order and receive end-use 3D printed parts, from simple fixtures to clinically relevant devices, within existing procurement and regulatory frameworks.

Dr. Ryan completed his MD and family medicine training, practiced for several years, and ran PolyUnity on the side before ultimately leaving clinical practice to focus on the company full-time. Today, he acts as a bridge between hospital stakeholders and engineers, helping translate frontline problems into manufacturable designs and embedding PolyUnity’s platform across departments such as clinical engineering, lab services, occupational therapy, and cancer care. Learn more about his story in this founder profile from 3DHEALS:From Physician to 3D Printing Innovator: Interview with Dr. Stephen Ryan.blank

Key Takeaways

  • PolyUnity’s mission is to integrate medical equipment by providing hospitals with a platform that manages design, quality assurance, and regulatory requirements, allowing clinicians to easily request safe, 3D-printed parts when needed.
  • The company grew out of MonMed 3D, a university-based medical 3D printing lab that helped clinicians learn and trust the technology before commercialization, laying the groundwork for PolyUnity’s launch.
  • COVID-19 demonstrated the value of on-demand manufacturing, as PolyUnity rapidly produced around 100,000 face shields in under three months for Newfoundland, showing how local 3D printing can fill urgent supply gaps.
  • After the pandemic, the team built hospital realities into their platform, learning procurement systems, infection control requirements, biomedical approvals, and budgeting processes to make 3D printing compatible with healthcare infrastructure.
  • PolyUnity now operates a distributed model with a central manufacturing hub and hospital-based printers across multiple provinces, moving toward automated job routing and remote quality monitoring.
  • Many of the highest-impact solutions are simple fixes, such as small adapters or replacement parts that improve safety or prevent hospitals from spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on large infrastructure replacements.
  • The company has grown largely through capital-efficient iteration, using government support and healthcare revenue while Dr. Ryan acts as a translator between clinicians and engineers to turn frontline problems into practical solutions.

The Future of Distributed Medical Manufacturing

  • PolyUnity aims to build a scalable “teleportation network” for medical manufacturing, enabling hospitals to order validated parts and have the platform automatically route print jobs to the best available printer.
  • The company is expanding its distributed printing infrastructure, installing printers in partner hospitals across multiple provinces so that more parts can be produced directly on site.
  • New initiatives focus on patient-specific care, including projects where clinicians scan limbs and produce customized splints locally using PolyUnity’s software and materials ecosystem.
  • Long-term applications may extend beyond simple parts, potentially including surgical guides, advanced medical devices, bioprinting, and even 3D-printed pharmaceuticals as hospital workflows and regulations evolve.
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Resources

🔗 PolyUnity and 3D Printing in Healthcare

🔗 Partnerships and Real-World Healthcare Projects

🔗 Research and Technical Foundations

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