3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), involves processing layers of material by computer control to create an object of almost any shape. There are 3D scanners that can make virtually any object from modeling software. Futurists call it the next stage of the industrial revolution.
Customized 3D printing is already transforming healthcare. Here are two examples:
* In 2015, doctors at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center implanted a titanium lower jawbone 3D printed by a dental implant company for a Syrian refugee whose injuries prevented him from speaking and eating; he was doing both one day after the implant.
* In 2016, a 64-year-old Israeli was one of the first cancer patients in the world to receive a 3D printed custom-made jaw necessitated by a metastatic tumor. Doctors made an exact replica by size and shape of his original jaw and printed the new one for a perfect fit, so he was able to eat the day after the surgery!