Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 10, 2020: The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) highlighted its use of 3D printing technology at its stand at GITEX 2020.

Mai Al Dossari, Director of the DHA’s Health Innovation Centre highlighted the positive results achieved by this technology in speeding up the recovery process of patients, reducing the financial cost of surgical procedures, reducing the time in surgery by about 25% and helping surgeons achieve greater surgical success particularly in complex cases.

Al Dossari said that DHA began using this technique few years ago and so far, DHA doctors across all DHA hospitals have successfully performed more than 50 surgeries to date using this technique across several medical specialties such including oncology, cardiology and orthopedics. 

DHA has a full-fledged 3D printing lab at the DHA’s Innovation Centre and the lab provides patient-specific 3D printing models especially needed for complicated surgeries at DHA hospitals.

The lab provides medical professionals at DHA with patient specific anatomical models allowing them to conduct detailed pre-operative analysis and to improve patient communication. 

Al Dossari said the 3D printing initiative is in line with the vision of Dubai’s 3D printing strategy to become a global 3D printing technology hub by 2030.

Using 3D printing technology, the Authority has implanted a kidney for a patient at Dubai Hospital with kidney failure and removed cancerous tumors for other patients. It has provided a number of patients with prostheses produced through 3D printing technology, in addition to implanting a patient's jaw and other diagnostic and therapeutic services provided by the Authority to patients using this technology. 

The Cardiology team at Rashid Hospital used 3D models to pre-operatively plan and test the fitting of Trans Aortic Valve Implants. The Maxillofacial team have produced models of patients’ jaws and skulls taking these into surgery for visual reference and intra-operative monitoring. Whilst at Hatta Hospital, the Orthopedics department has been printing knees and shoulders to support planning for reconstruction surgeries.

Al Dossari added that DHA is focused on integrating 3D printing into its day-to-day workflows to secure better results for its patients.