Prof. Dr. Dr. Bilal Al-Nawas

Dear colleagues,

Hardly any field of medicine develops as fast as that of 3D printing and 3D bioprinting, which is are a branches of additive manufacturing. The Society for 3D Printing in Medicine was launched at the last conference on 3D printing in Mainz. We would like to invite colleagues to share their information and experience again in 2018, and to give researchers, biologists, materials scientists, surgeons and other interested people the opportunity to meet and discuss presentations.
The interdisciplinary approach means seeing how 3D printing is understood and applied in other disciplines. It is also important to establish a link between groundwork and hospital work and to ensure that 3D printing is geared for the future. Only then 3D printing will become a reality in hospitals.

Prof. Dr. Michael Gelinsky

Dear colleagues,

This year’s conference will also be used to further shape the Society for 3D Printing in Medicine, launched last year.
With already more than 90 members the society will be a strong player in this exciting field and will help to stimulate research, interdisciplinary exchange, commercialization and teaching in all related fields. As 3D printing for biomedical applications is a highly multidisciplinary research topic the society locates itself at the interfaces between the different disciplines. It will support exchange of knowledge and experiences and help to translate between the different special ‘languages’.
Of crucial importance is the integration of clinicians as the proposed end-users of 3D printing in medicine as they are the ones defining current needs and interesting new potential applications.