Impact of additive technologies in the health sector for 2030

Additive technologies are by definition technologies capable of producing products in a layer-by-layer fashion. Due to its technological characteristics, the products can be produced with multi-materials and without any geometric limitations. By associating the use of biocompatible materials, it is becoming an excellent technology to develop products and / or devices in the medical field. These additive manufacturing technologies in the health sector have even created a more specific technological field, namely biomanufacturing which is capable of answering to the demanding geometric complexity of the anatomy with the combination of biomaterials, drugs and growth factors and the use of cells for the production of biomedical implants. The additive manufacturing and biomanufacturing technologies have thus shown to be capable to meet the requirements demanded by the medical sector. However, responses to these needs can't be based only on the current context, but also in the future context. Given the growth and diversity that these technologies have achieved, the present study aims to examine the future impact of additive manufacturing technologies in the medical field for the year 2030. To meet this goal, we used the Delphi method which is a technique that involves the application of questionnaires to experts in the field, until reaching the relative consensus of the predictions of these technologies.