Is the future of medicine 3D-printed?

On Thursday, January 15th the USPTO published a fascinating new patent from International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) that describes a method for 3D printing customized medication utilizing IoT sensors and the medical records of a user.

The patent application, titled “PRINTING CUSTOMIZED MEDICATION BASED ON CURRENT USER DATA AND MEDICAL RECORDS OF THE USER,” states:

AbstractA computer-implemented method for printing customized 3D medication based on the current user data and one or more medical records of the user. The method obtains current user data via one or more user IoT sensors and accesses one or more medical records of the user. The method further determines a medication design based on the obtained current user data and the accessed one or more medical records of the user and prints a 3D medication based on the determined medication design.Furthermore, the patent filing describes consolidating multiple medications into one, which can then be 3D printed into layers, and released “time based.”

3D printed medication may not be a new innovation, but the patent details that “current 3D printing technology is limited because it does not consider all relevant data to effectively customize each medication specific to each user.”

According to IBM’s website, company scientists and researchers received 9,130 U.S. patents in 2020, paving way to over 150,000 U.S. patents total since 1920.

Curious to learn more about the patent?
Visit the full publishing here at the USPTO website.

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