Materialise is proud to announce that we won 2nd place in Desktop Engineering’s “Change the World Challenge”. Below you can read our submission which will be featured in the December issue of Desktop Engineering.

When a car breaks down, you can pop the hood, diagnose the problem and determine how to fix it. Because of the inaccessibility of the human body, when a patient has a medical issue, it's not that simple. The Mimics Innovation Suite (MIS) makes it possible to go from CT/MRI data to 3D, revealing internal human anatomy in a non-invasive way. Through the link to RP, FEA, CFD, and CAD, the potential for patient specific device designs is unleashed.

The suite is comprised of engineering services as well as Mimics (3D image processing) and 3-matic (‘digital’ CAD technology) software solutions. Mimics outputs STL files which are used in 3-matic for patient-specific analyses, custom implant designs and surgical guide designs. An implant that is designed using patient data will fit perfectly, reduce OR time, improve implant longevity and the overall patient results.

In addition, implant performance can be assessed pre-operatively with FEA and custom surgical guides can transfer virtual surgery planning to the operating room. Nearly all major implant manufacturers are using the MIS to design custom implants in the cranial facial and orthopedic markets. In addition, it has proven to be a missing link to revolutionize pulmonary and cardiac R&D and allows for virtual surgeries, reducing cadaveric and clinical testing.

3-matic is our software dedicated to working on anatomical data, a bridge to CAD or CAE. A variety of design and meshing operations can be performed directly on the imported 3D anatomical data generated in Mimics. Thus, the software eliminates the lengthy and error-prone process of reverse engineering. However, if the user needs to export the selected anatomical data or created design to CAD, then 3-matic’s automatic reverse engineering capabilities can speed up and simplify this process. 3-matic was designed to interface with Mimics seamlessly and allows export to any CAD and all major CAE packages.

The ways that the MIS is currently being used are vast. Dr. Ola Harrysson, Associate Professor at North Carolina State University and his biomodeling students used the MIS to design an osseointegrated prosthetic leg for a dog named Cassidy. Dr. Robert Kung, Chief Scientific Officer of Abiomed, Inc. was able to design an artificial heart to fit the most number of patients. Dr. Jan De Backer, CEO of FluidDA improves respiratory medical treatments and device design using the MIS. The possibilities are endless.

Going beyond R&D to surgical planning, Materialise has developed clinical software packages including SurgiCase CMF (cranio-maxillofacial) and SurgiCase Orthopaedic. This allows surgeons to virtually plan procedures based on patient CT/MRI data until an ideal plan is derived. They can simulate osteotomies and evaluate implant and distractor placement. Once the plan is approved, it is transferred to the OR with a surgical guide developed by Materialise. Through this process, OR time can be reduced while improving patient outcomes.