While it is certainly outside of the realm of product development, the use of 3D printing in medicine and health care can provide some useful insight into what the growing capabilities of the technology are.

3D printing in medicine is a relatively new phenomena, but it has quickly grown to inhabit a vital and growing role. It is used to build custom-made replacements for human body parts, such as segments of fake-bone, fake-joints, heart valves and much more. The key benefit to their use is that they can be used to print in any shape or size, which means that people can get exactly what they need.

The key area of growth in their use is in what materials you can print with. If the technology becomes more able to print with a number of materials which more closely resemble organic matter, the chances are that printing could become much more widely used in medicine. Someday, it could even solve the issue of supply of organ transplants.