Abstract:

In this work we are going to show the progress made at the Spanish University of Distance Education in the field of training in 3D printing techniques in medicine and health. We will start by projects already developed and completed, exposing below the current alternatives.

3D printing takes place thanks to two fundamental factors: the development of plastic materials (photopolymerizable resins) and the development of manufacturing systems with a high degree of automation.

In 1957, in the midst of the development of plastic materials, the French sociologist and philosopher Roland Barthes (1915-1980) commented: «The hierarchy of materials has been abolished: a mere and simple one replaces them all. The whole world can be plastic, and even life itself, because the manufacture of plastic aortas is already a reality».

Indeed, the emergence of plastics has been very important both industrially and in medicine; and something similar is currently happening with 3D printing. But from there, with plastics or 3D printing, to «create life», there is an abyss.

The start-up milestone of additive manufacturing hold on March 9, 1983 when, in the United States, the founder of 3D Systems, Charles W. Hull, managed to print a cup of tea on the first additive manufacturing system: the SLA-1 stereolithography device, built by himself.

Additive manufacturing technologies have been expanding their scope over the years to become a 4.0 revolution in certain sectors of the life around us. These techniques have been breaking down barriers and changing the way we think when obtaining geometries and materials in very different areas of the industry. Today, there is no surprise that 3D printing has come to the world of medicine to address such demanding and promising challenges as organ and tissue printing.

At UNED, we got on this train almost from the beginning. As early as the nineteens we had our doctorate courses in rapid prototyping (it was the name in this time).

In this work, as indicated, we will do a chronological recap of the different training programs in this field and explain how such cutting-edge technology is addressed in a distance university, as is ours.

Keywords:

Distance training, Bioprinting, 3D Printing, Medical Engineering, Regenerative Medicine.