Here are five ways that 3D printers could be a game changer for U.S. health care: 

1. Cutting down the backlogged kidney transplant list. 80 percent of the approximately 113,000 Americans on the organ transplant list need a new kidney — but only 30,000 transplants are performed in the U.S. each year, contributing to 4,000 annual kidney-related deaths. But with the use of “Bio-Ink” and 3D printers, that could all change. Researchers at the University of Iowa have been using a “bioprinter” to simulate living tissue structures. Dr. Ibrahim Ozbolat, who is heading the project predicts that fully formed, transplant-ready organs could be an impending reality. “The long-term goal of this [lab] is to create functioning human organs some five or 10 years from now. This is not far-fetched,” said Ozbolat.

2. Regulating diabetes by creating entirely new organs. As if creating organs from stem cells wasn’t enough, Dr. Ozbolat’s team has an even loftier goal in mind……

See on internetmedicine.com