The Future of 3D Printed Medicine

29 June 2023

Dr Jared Miles and PhD candidate Liam Krueger from UQ's School of Pharmacy spoke to 2ser radio about how 3D printing could improve personalised healthcare.

Dr Miles said 3D printing could provide better outcomes for patients.

"Both myself and Liam and are pharmacists so we see it all the time, where unfortunately patients who could really do with very specific doses on their medication are having to use doses that are a bit too high or go up too quickly," Dr Miles said.

"We can see them get side effects, and sometimes they can get through and adjust, but a lot of the time it's too much for them and they end up having to stop their treatment and not really getting the treatment they need at the time.

"So I think 3D printing is where we can really utilise this to customise doses and help actually improve the treatment for these people," Dr Miles said.

Mr Krueger said the technology can be used to create specific doses, tailored to a patient's needs.

"Basically when we are 3D printing we can scale the tablets in their size very precisely and that means we can change the dose to basically anywhere between where existing doses would be," Mr Krueger said.

"So you wouldn't have to jump from one dose and then, for example, the only next dose in a higher strength is actually double the previous dose.

"It can be a very gradual process with 3D printing, so you can increase it by as little as you need to for any particular medication," Mr Krueger said.

Listen to the interview

This story also featured in Medical Republic, ABC radio and Yahoo.

 

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