The Advent of a New Era in Digital Healthcare: A Role for 3D Printing Technologies in Drug Manufacturing?

Abstract

The technological revolution has physically affected all manufacturing domains, at the gateway of the fourth industrial revolution. Three-dimensional (3D) printing has already shown its potential in this new reality, exhibiting remarkable applications in the production of drug delivery systems. As part of this concept, personalization of the dosage form by means of individualized drug dose or improved formulation functionalities has concentrated global research efforts. Beyond the manufacturing level, significant parameters must be considered to promote the real-time manufacturing of pharmaceutical products in distributed areas. The majority of current research activities is focused on formulating 3D-printed drug delivery systems while showcasing different scenarios of installing 3D printers in patients’ houses, hospitals, and community pharmacies, as well as in pharmaceutical industries. Such research presents an array of parameters that must be considered to integrate 3D printing in a future healthcare system, with special focus on regulatory issues, drug shortages, quality assurance of the product, and acceptability of these scenarios by healthcare professionals and public parties. The objective of this review is to critically present the spectrum of possible scenarios of 3D printing implementation in future healthcare and to discuss the inevitable issues that must be addressed.

AI-Based Support System for Monitoring the Quality of a Product within Industry 4.0 Paradigm

“…This applies in particular to the issues of legal and ethical regulations (including the so-called ethical AI), but also shortages of materials and drugs, and the need to ensure a sufficiently high quality of the product. The acceptability of the above-mentioned directions of the healthcare system development by medical specialists, patients, and their families is crucial to include in the research spectrum of possible future scenarios for the implementation of 3D printing in healthcare and to discuss problems that must be foreseen and solved before they even appear [ 9 ]. Budzik et al [ 10 ] proposed a comprehensive control system for the additive manufacturing process for Industry 4.0.…”

“…The Industry 4.0 paradigm introduced robotization, automation, and computerization, among other things, so that the modeling and simulation of production processes in real time or close to real time would allow the most efficient and cost-effective methods of testing, selecting, and using (preferably waste-free, with recycling) technologically advanced materials as part of the modern production processes [ 9 ]. A production plant that uses, for example, advanced reverse engineering processes (3D scanning—adaptation—3D printing) should therefore provide massively personalized products with a controlled high quality [ 10 , 11 ].…”

Determination of Alteration in Micromeritic Properties of a Solid Dispersion: Brunauer-Emmett-Teller Based Adsorption and Other Structured Approaches

“…It can be inferred from the results of BET analysis that solid dispersion with drug to polymer ratio of 1:4 or above can be a good candidate for 3 rd generation solid dispersions. Moreover, amorphous and porous solid dispersions are good candidates for 3D tablet printing [72,73].…”

Correction: Andreadis et al. The Advent of a New Era in Digital Healthcare: A Role for 3D Printing Technologies in Drug Manufacturing? Pharmaceutics 2022, 14, 609

“…In the original publication [ 1 ], there was a mistake in the legend for Figure 1. The legend did not include the reproduction permission from the author.…”