The International Quality & Productivity Center (IQPC) specializes in conferences, events, summits and training programs worldwide. In 2014, IQPC held their inaugural Additive Manufacturing for Medical and Healthcare Summit. This year IQPC has expanded the focus of the summit to include bioprinting and drug discovery.

2015 Additive Manufacturing Summit for
Medical, Bioprinting and Drug Discovery
July 27-29, 2015
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

We caught up with Lisa Il Grande, Conference Program Director of this year’s summit to learn about the Additive Manufacturing Summit for Medical, BioPrinting and Drug Discovery in an exclusive AMazing® Q&A conversation.

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AMazing®: Lisa, thank you for your participation.This must be an exciting time with the Additive Manufacturing Summit next month. What sets this year’s Additive Manufacturing Summit for Medical, BioPrinting and Drug Discovery apart from last year’s inaugural event? What are some major topics that will be presented at this year’s summit?

Lisa Il Grande: Thank you! This year’s event differs from the first rendition as we have expanded a one day meeting into a three day conference. We have also changed the focus from “Medical and Healthcare” to “Medical, Bioprinting and Drug Discovery” to cover not only where the industry is now, with respect to development and research in additive manufacturing, but where industry is headed in the future.

A few major topics are a Keynote from the United States Food and Drug Administration’s Matthew Di Prima on their “Technical Perspective on Additive Manufacturing,” a Case Study on “3D Bioprinting – Steps towards Making it Real and Significant” from Dr. William Warren, Vice President of Sanofi Pasteur, and a Case Study covering “ 3D Printing Soft Materials for Tissue Engineering and Medical Applications” from Dr. Adam Feinberg, Carnegie Mellon University.

AMazing®: What are some common interests that most attendees share about additive manufacturing for medical, bioprinting and drug discovery?

Lisa Il Grande: There are many common interests that attendees share. Some of the most prominent include: learning the fundamentals of AM and making the business case for implementing the process and technology within their organizations, staying ahead of the curve and discovering the latest research behind 3D printing soft materials for tissue engineering and medical applications, and promoting cost effective and strategic material selection that will ensure quality and functionality of printed devices.

AMazing®: As a vertically oriented market are you anticipating an increase in the number of machine and material vendors attending this year’s summit?

Lisa Il Grande: We have seen an increase from the vendor market at this year’s event as vendors recognize the importance of tuning into the needs of the industry. It is important that vendors do not miss out on this event as the content will provide powerful examples of how industry stakeholders in the industry are building frameworks for additive manufacturing and are exploring new strategies that will safeguard their procedures.

AMazing®: Will there be any special sessions at this year’s summit to help businesses with commercialization of additive technologies?

Lisa Il Grande: Absolutely! In particular, Brent Mitchell from Stryker will be delivering a case study on “The Benefits of 3D Printed Devices on Healthcare and Society; Where Devices are being Used and How they are Transforming the Industry”, and Lauralyn McDaniel of SME will be addressing overcoming “Challenges to Increasing use of Additive Manufacturing.” Both sessions will have content covering technology, quality, commercially viable printed devices, and best practices for standardization and acceptance of utilized materials.

AMazing®: In your conversations with industry experts, what’s needed to help the additive manufacturing medical industry reach its full potential?

Lisa Il Grande: We uncovered that many organizations are looking to polish and perfect their existing procedures, or make the business case for implementing AM processes and procedures into existing workflow and day-to-day operations. Currently, industry experts are looking for end-to-end solutions for printing procedures that can include printer selection, best practices for materials management from selection to storage, and innovation in design for successful additive manufacturing of implantable and non-implantable medical devices.

AMazing®: What opportunities does IQPC offer towards gaining additive manufacturing education, training and development for those individuals that are not able to attend this year’s summit?

Lisa Il Grande: We have our online resource center where individuals who were unable to attend the event can access pre-event content. Our resource center is updated when new research, articles or interviews become available. In addition, the Pharma IQ is a global database that can be accessed by anyone. This IQ features industry news, presentations, articles and the latest developments in research that are available from IQPC’s global offices. This database is available to give readers multiple and comprehensive perspectives of AM from various points of view.

AMazing®: Many industry insiders expect the global additive manufacturing medical market to grow significantly in the next few years. How will IQPC’s advanced medical manufacturing initiatives evolve to meet the growing needs of the professional market?

Lisa Il Grande: We pride ourselves in conducting significant amounts of research with the market in order to identify the latest and most pressing topics to have on the program. Each year we uncover the top challenges affecting the industry and reflect them in a well developed agenda. Our conference Advisory Board of industry practitioners also provide their insight on agenda topics and sessions to be certain that we continue to evolve with the professional market’s needs.

This concludes our interview. Thank you very much Lisa for your participation. We are very grateful for the opportunity to learn about IQPC’s upcoming conference and commitment to the additive manufacturing industry.

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About IQPC
IQPC provides business executives around the world with tailored practical conferences, large scale events, topical seminars and in-house training programs, keeping them up-to-date with industry trends, technological developments and the regulatory landscape. IQPC’s large scale conferences are market leading “must attend” events for their respective industries

For more information, please visit http://www.iqpc.com

Contact
Katrina Savarino
Senior Marketing Manager IDGA/IQPC
Tel: 212-885-2677
Katrina.Savarino@idga.org

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