Exploring the medical applications of 3D printing with 3D LifePrints has been an incredible experience for the staff and patients of Alder Hey children’s hospital. With 3DLP’s embedded 3D printing facility we have discovered a number of truly novel and exciting ways to make our care better, kinder and easier. Working with 3DLP has been an absolute pleasure. Their attention to detail and innovative team have opened our eyes to a huge range of possibilities.

Just to say a huge thank you for making the 3D model. It's even better than expected and will make planning the case much easier

Wow! Great Work! Its amazing that you can see such clear segmentation

3D printing could reduce a lot of challenges we have with training. It is obviously beneficial for the patient, obviously beneficial for the clinician and obviously beneficial for our health systems in terms of reducing costs and reducing complications.

I think the reproduction is excellent and will benefit the patient from from both the clinical perspective, and the families understanding of the nature of her pathology. I used the 3D reconstruction to help the family understand exactly the nature of the deformity. At the end of the consultation the patient's mother admitted that it was the first time she really understood understood the complexity of the deformity"

The model went down well this morning, changed the operation. Patient will almost certainly do better as a result of it, both short term and long term.

At the end of the day, the more you practice the better a surgeon you become. Being able to use 3D printed models that mimic tissues from bone to vessels provides us with an incredible opportunity to create high fidelity simulation models.

Seeing the lab and chatting with the biomedical engineer stimulated a new plan for a complex patient and I'm going to ask them to sort some new models for me.

The model was very useful. It allowed the patient to see how abnormal her hip really is. A superb tool to help counsel patients. More time planning results in more rehearsal, repetition, which must lead to better outcomes. Very useful in pre-op counselling and patient education.

I found it useful, not only for pre-operative planning but also to understand and identify trochlea dysplasia patterns.

Virtual surgery is a positive initiative and has spurred ideas for improving the model and subsequent impingement cases.