Latest / The Manufacturing Podcast with Fexingo: Factories, Supply Chains, and Industrial Business / How a Factory Is Printing Organs for Surgery Practice
Transcript
- Lucas: So Luna, we've talked a lot on this show about factories making things like sneakers out of chewing gum and jet fuel out of carbon dioxide. But today I want to take us somewhere a little more, I don't know, visceral. A factory just outside Cleveland that is 3D printing human organs. Luna: Wait, like organs for transplant? Because that's a whole different conversation. Lucas: Not for transplant yet. These are for surgeons to practice on before they actually operate on a real person. The company is called Replicate Medical, and they've been around for about eight years now. Their whole thing is taking a patient's CT scan and turning it into a physical, squishy, anatomically correct replica of their heart or liver or kidney. Luna: So you're telling me a surgeon can rehearse a surgery on a fake organ that's specific to the patient on the table? That's wild. Lucas: Exactly. And the key word there is specific. For decades, surgeons have trained on either animal tissue or generic plastic models. But no two human hearts are identical, and when you're dealing with a rare tumor or a congenital defect, the anatomy can be completely different from anything in a textbook. So Replicate's printer takes the CT scan, slices it up, and lays down layers of a hydrogel material that mimics the feel and even the texture of real tissue. Luna: How do they get the squishiness right? Because I imagine if it's too hard or too soft, it's not really helping anyone practice. Lucas: Right, so that's the engineering challenge. The material is a blend of water, polymers, and a bit of cellulose, and they tune it to match the specific elasticity of the tissue they're replicating. For example, a healthy liver feels different from a cirrhotic liver, and they can adjust the printer's settings to replicate that. They also encode the precise geometry from the scan, so the blood vessels, the chambers, everything is in the right place. Luna: So this is less about mass production and more about one-off, custom manufacturing. That's a different kind of factory than we usually talk about. Lucas: Totally. And actually, that's part of why I wanted to bring this up. We've covered factories that make millions of identical widgets. This is a factory where every single product is unique. The production line is basically a row of industrial 3D printers, and each one is working on a different patient's organ. They have a clean room, they have quality control, but the workflow is more like a bespoke tailor than a traditional assembly line. Luna: And who's ordering these? I mean, are hospitals calling up and saying, 'We need a left kidney for a 45-year-old male by Thursday'? Lucas: Basically, yeah. Mostly it's surgical teams who have a complicated case coming up. They scan the patient, send the file over, and within a few days they get the model in the mail. And it's not just for practice. Some surgeons use it to walk the patient through the procedure, like, 'Here's your tumor, here's what we're going to do.' Patients find that incredibly reassuring. Luna: That's a nice touch. But let's talk about the cost. I remember reading that custom medical models can be pretty pricey. What are we talking about here? Lucas: It depends on the complexity, but a heart model might run around three to five thousand dollars. A liver, maybe a bit more. That sounds like a lot, but consider that an operating room can cost upwards of a hundred dollars a minute. If rehearsing on a model cuts even twenty minutes off a complex surgery, it pays for itself. And that's not even counting the potential savings from avoiding complications. Luna: So it's an investment that can actually reduce costs in the long run. That's a compelling business case. Are there studies showing it actually improves outcomes? Lucas: There are some early studies, and they're promising. One study from a couple years ago found that surgeons who practiced on a patient-specific model reduced their operative time by an average of fifteen percent compared to a control group. And another survey showed that ninety percent of surgeons felt more confident going into the real procedure after rehearsing. It's still not a huge body of evidence, but it's growing. Luna: And you mentioned quality control earlier. How do you QC something that is, by definition, one of a kind? You can't just pull a random sample off the line. Lucas: That's a great question, and it's something they've had to figure out. They use a combination of high-resolution scanning and manual inspection. After the organ is printed, they scan it back and compare the digital geometry to the original CT scan. They also do physical checks — they weigh it, they test its elasticity with a durometer, and they have a surgical advisor who does a final feel test. It's almost like a master craftsman signing off on a piece of furniture. Luna: That's fascinating. It's really a blend of cutting-edge automation and old-fashioned handcraft. You know, it reminds me of something we talked about a few episodes back, about how traditional craftsmanship is making a comeback in high-tech industries. There's a real human touch even in this very binary world of 3D printing. Lucas: Yeah, and that's a big part of why we do this show. We like to find the places where technology and human skill intersect. And if you're someone who listens to these conversations and finds them useful, or maybe even inspiring for your own work, that's exactly who we're trying to reach. And you know, the reason we can keep having these conversations without any ads is that listeners like you support the show. If you've gotten something out of it, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's low-key, but it does help us keep the lights on. Luna: Yeah, and it's a pretty small way to help if you enjoy what we do. No pressure, but it's appreciated. Lucas: Anyway, back to Replicate. Their next big move is expanding into pediatric cases. Children have smaller and more delicate anatomy, and there's a real gap in training because it's harder to get pediatric cadavers. They've already done a handful of congenital heart defect models, and the feedback from pediatric surgeons has been really strong. Luna: That's such a meaningful application. If you can help a surgeon prepare to operate on a tiny heart, you're literally helping save a child's life. There's no better ROI than that. Lucas: Exactly. And they're not stopping there. They're also working on adding simulated blood flow to their models. Right now, the organs are solid, but they're developing a version that has internal channels you can pump fluid through. That would let surgeons practice clamping, suturing, and even using catheters in a way that feels more like a real surgery. Luna: Wow, that's a game changer. You'd be able to practice the whole procedure from start to finish, including bleeding and how to respond to it. Do you think that's where the industry is headed? Lucas: I think so. We're seeing a lot of movement in this space. A few companies are doing similar things, but Replicate seems to be the furthest along in terms of clinical adoption. They've been profitable for a couple of years now, and they're expanding their facility to double their output. And there's also interest from the military and from medical schools that want to use these models for training residents. Luna: So, it's not just for the rare complex cases anymore. It's becoming a standard tool for education. That's a big shift from the old 'see one, do one, teach one' model. Lucas: Right. And it gets to the core of what manufacturing can do when it's applied to a field like medicine. It's not just about making things faster or cheaper. It's about making things better — in this case, making surgeons better. And the ripple effects are huge: shorter surgeries, fewer complications, lower costs for the healthcare system as a whole. Luna: And the technological building blocks are all things we've talked about on the show before: 3D printing, CT scanning, materials science. But it's the combination that makes it powerful. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why I wanted to bring this story to our listeners. It's a perfect example of how advanced manufacturing is solving real-world problems, one patient at a time. And the fact that it's happening in a factory, with industrial printers and QC protocols, just proves that healthcare is becoming a manufacturing story. Luna: Well, I'm certainly glad we took a closer look. If you're in the medical field, or just interested in how things are made, this is one to watch. Thanks for joining us on this one. Lucas: And as always, we'll be back with more stories from the shop floor. Until then.