A Chat with Dr. Joseph Beaman and Elliot Kotek on the Future of 3D Printing
What Medical Innovation Labs Learned When We Brought Together the Creator of SLS 3D Printing and the Man Behind Not Impossible Labs
In late March, we hosted two pioneers of 3D printing for a fireside chat on the future. In an intimate room overlooking downtown Austin, Dr. Joseph Beaman and Elliot Kotek discussed the advancements, opportunities and challenges for 3D printing in the medical field. Here, we’ve recapped the best of that conversation — the key insights, trends to watch, and questions to answer — in hopes of driving the discussion forward.
I invite you to watch the entire discussion here, or jump ahead to the core conversations below.
The theme of the night was the cross-pollination of ideas.
Dr. Beaman comes from a technical and manufacturing background, so his interest in 3D printing was in accuracy and durability; Elliot, meanwhile, was most interested in the ability to create rapid prototypes and affect change at an individual level as quickly as possible.
Over nearly an hour, the conversations between our thought leaders weaved together a number of issues relevant to the healthcare community and the 3D printing community at large. We captured the core conversations and some outstanding sound bites below.
The complete interview is embedded above — see the timestamp next to each core topic below so you can jump to that point in the discussion.
3D Printing and Health: State of the Union [Timestamp: 13:10]
If 3D printing for health was a baseball game, what inning are we in and why? Dr. Beaman describes the three basic stages that exist:
“Look I made something!”
“Look what I made!”
“Look what I made, and it’s useful!”
We’re in that second stage, technology-wise, today, and moving toward the third. For medical purposes, the ability to begin printing with carbon fibre or silicon will be incredibly useful, and it can have a massive impact on the medical field.
Dr. Beaman’s initial goal with 3D printing was not just to show that you can make the first one of something, but that you can make it fast. 3D printing allows innovators to create rapid prototypes to get to a point where it works much sooner than ever before.
3D printing is also to the point that it is less expensive, at least with Selective Laser Sintering, to make up to 10,000 parts rather than using traditional injection molding.
Open Sourcing 3D Printing [Timestamp: 19:28]
It’s an exciting time where people can now make things for themselves, and you can’t stop innovation because of the concern that someone will misuse something.
Elliot discussed where we’re at in terms of the democratization of the technology and the benefits that openness and access have afforded consumers. “The more people that have a chance to add to the design of the file, the better,” he said, in regards to open sourcing 3D design.
While Dr. Beaman was skeptical about how advanced 3D printing really is at this point despite media hype, he applauded companies like MakerBot for, “making designers out of all of us.” Getting the technology into the hands of consumers is a net positive.
Ethics and Regulation: [Timestamp: 36:10]
We are placing a level of interruption between ourselves and the things we used to do for ourselves, and it’s rife for lawyers and security and privacy issues.
When it comes to health, how much regulation do we want (health can mean life and death, after all)? Where is less oversight and intervention crucial to motivate iterate and improve?
There are myriad ethical and regulatory concerns surrounding 3D printing for health and Elliot and Dr. Beaman didn’t shy away from these subjects. When it comes to 3D printing in healthcare, how much regulation do we want and need?
Elliot and Kotek both agreed that regulation could be harmful to the innovation process, since it’s hard to fathom governing bodies being able to keep up with the rapidly changing field. “Regulation can’t exist at the cost of innovation,” Kotek said.
Beaman agreed, but reminded the audience that as with most industries, some amount of regulation is required to protect individuals from harm.
What will be possible in the next 20–30 years with 3D printing? [Timestamp: 51:41]
If the rate of innovation continues at its current pace, 3D printing will become an integral piece in manufacturing, design, architecture, not to mention life sciences, with the advancements in 3D bioprinting or tissues and organs.
3D printing has the ability to change the way we design, build, and manufacture medical devices that will solve some of the most pressing clinical problems of our day.
About the Speakers
We sought out these two particular speakers because we wanted to bring the brightest minds in 3D printing together from both ends of the spectrum — from research to implementation — to spark conversations that may not otherwise take place.
Dr. Joseph Beaman is a good friend of mine and long-time University of Texas professor at the Cockrell School of Engineering. He’s the father of one of the earliest and most widely-adopted forms of 3D printing, selective laser sintering (SLS). Joe and his collaborators gave birth to an industry whose effects have been more impactful — and more varied — than they could have ever imagined. He now works on industry-grade 3D printing focused on strength, durability and accuracy. In my opinion, he’s one of the greatest minds in the world today, and I’m humbled to know him and be able to work with him on a few projects Medical Innovation Labs has under development.
Elliot Kotek is the co-founder of Not Impossible Labs. His work is such a huge inspiration to me personally, particularly because of their focus on developing “technology for the sake of humanity.” Specifically, Not Impossible Labs is the group behind Project Daniel, which created a 3D-printed prosthetic arm for a 14-year-old boy who had lost both arms and couldn’t feed himself, and they went on to teach the locals how to use 3D printing to help other members of their community who lost limbs as a result of the war in South Sudan. And that’s just one of the amazing life-changing projects they’ve led; Elliot and his team are at the very forefront of delivering new kinds of care worldwide.
Stay tuned for future events in our speaker series!
This talk was just one of many that Medical Innovation Labs hopes to produce in order to bring a unique community of clinicians, inventors, engineers, entrepreneurs, and researchers together under the same roof to spark discussion, ideas, and solutions for the medical industry.
If you would like to be part of the discussion, or have an idea for a future event, we would love to hear from you. You can reach us anytime at info@medicalinnovationlabs.com.
