AI Drives Personalized 3D Printed Medical Devices in New 3D Systems Partnership

3D Systems (NASDAQ: DDD) just announced that it is partnering with Enhatch Inc., which developed the Intelligent Surgery Ecosystem, in an effort to meet increasing demand for 3D printed personalized medical devices. 3D Systems frequently works with medical device manufacturers, which use its virtual surgical planning (VSP) platform to improve surgical outcomes and decrease time in the OR for orthopedic and craniomaxillofacial procedures. Enhatch, through its end-to-end Intelligent Surgery Ecosystem, develops smart surgical devices and enterprise workflow solutions in an effort to personalize and automate the surgical workflow. So this seems like a match made in medical device heaven for the two companies.

“Our partnership with Enhatch will enable us to deliver the healthcare industry’s most comprehensive approach to additive manufacturing. Integrating these technologies and capabilities into 3D Systems’ surgical planning solutions will make processes more efficient, trackable, and cost-effective,” explained Menno Ellis, the Executive Vice President, Healthcare Solutions, at 3D Systems. “This is another step in our ongoing commitment to innovation that helps our customers remain at the forefront of medical device development and healthcare delivery.”

3D Systems’ Virtual Surgical Planning

Enhatch’s AI-driven software applications are meant to streamline the patient-specific surgical solutions. Its ecosystem can be used by physicians to help them plan for and evaluate possible surgical risks, and find a way around them. 3D Systems has plenty of experience here as well, having worked with countless surgeons in the last ten years to plan over 140,000 patient-specific cases with the help of its VSP, and print more than two million instruments and implants. These printed products, created in the company’s ISO 13485-certified and FDA-registered facilities, were then used in over 100 FDA-cleared and CE-marked devices.

The goal of this partnership is to merge the advanced healthcare capabilities of both companies, by incorporating Enhatch’s Intelligent Surgery Ecosystem into 3D Systems’ patient-specific workflow. This workflow includes designing custom implants and instruments, production processes, advanced software, and planning services. The combination of these personalized digital healthcare solutions will help develop a automated, efficient, optimized, and scalable workflow for patient-specific 3D printing medical devices.

“Enhatch is proud to welcome 3D Systems to the Intelligent Surgery Ecosystem,” said Peter Verrillo, the Co-Founder and CEO of Enhatch. “Healthcare ecosystems have tremendous potential to disrupt and reshape the entire industry, leading to improved patient outcomes, faster, more accurate, and safer procedures. Enhatch and 3D Systems have a shared goal of bringing surgeons and industry together with the best leading-edge technologies available.”

Enhatch’s Intelligent Surgery Ecosystem – powered by AI – streamlines and scales the design and delivery of patient-specific medical devices by automating the process. (Image courtesy of Enhatch)

In announcing its earnings results for 2021, 3D Systems also declared that it had completed the reorganization of its operations into two business units, one focused on industrial solutions and the other on healthcare. By continuing to partner with companies like Enhatch that share its drive to improve medical devices and surgery, and acquiring companies like Volumetric and Allevi, it would seem that the company is on the right track on its second unit.

3D Systems and Enhatch both featured their solutions at the AAOS 2022 Annual Meeting this week in Chicago.