Modern medicine is subject to constant change. The population is aging and the frequency of chronic diseases will increase. Furthermore, injuries, congenital diseases and other health impairments require specific medical treatment. Although medical care has improved steadily over the course of history, still mainly standardized procedures are used in patient care. Often, these procedures cannot be tailored to individual patients’ needs due to significant workloads or cost factors.
Primary aim of this master thesis is therefore to demonstrate whether and how rapid prototyping can be used to allow individual medical approaches and achieve better and more precise results.
For this purpose, the thesis begins with an analysis of the current state of the art regarding rapid prototyping and telemedicine. On this basis, a categorisation and description of various applications of rapid prototyping in the medical field is conducted. Here, both technical as well as medical aspects of the applications are addressed. Based on these findings, trends are derived and regulatory, technical and ethical requirements needed for the future realisation of these trends are discussed.
The findings show that particularly the combination of rapid prototyping and telemedicine will gain importance in the future. Thereby, a significant added value in terms of quality improvements and cost savings can be generated for both physicians and hospitals as well as patients. Especially in countries and areas coping with insufficient medical care this combination can lead to a considerable improvement of living conditions.