The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has been using additive manufacturing (AM) technologies for over a decade to support the provision of cutting-edge health care for our Veterans. Recently the VHA has invested more in increasing the use of AM technologies to drive medical device manufacturing and innovation from the point of care and has stood up a dedicated groups like the Office of Advance Manufacturing and VA Ventures focused to these efforts. This presentation will share the VHA’s experience using AM technologies to create FDA registered manufacturing sites, support clinical service lines like Dental and Occupational Therapy, and drive medical device innovation from within the hospital system. It will provide examples of how the VHA has applied AM to a wide variety of medical applications, share lessons learned from using AM technologies as for medical device production platforms, and provide insight on the VHA’s approach for building teams within the hospital system that to support the application of AM in the medical space.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe methods for using additive manufacturing for supporting medical device innovation and point of care manufacturing as well as the challenges that come along with those
- Understand the usefulness of additive manufacturing technologies in healthcare systems and the direction medical device innovation is heading with the help of the technology.
- List a variety of potential applications for using additive manufacturing within a hospital to support patient care.
