This Fall, a Registry will Collect Medical 3D Printing Data To Prove the Value of 3D Printing to Healthcare

A new medical 3D printing clinical data registry launched by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and the American College of Radiology (ACR) will collect 3D printing data at the point of care beginning this fall.

The registry will allow the two organizations to analyze clinical decision making and demonstrate the importance of medical 3D printing to the radiology field, says a member of the RSNA in a press release.

Simplifying the complications around medical 3D printing

This announcement follows the release of four new Category III Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes for the use of 3D printing to create anatomic models and anatomic guides.

“Registry data will enable essential analyses to demonstrate the clinical value of 3D printing, which has been challenging to date because of the rich diversity of clinical indications, the different technologies for generating physical models from medical images and the complexity of the models,” says a joint press release.

“Medical models and surgical guides have been 3D printed for well over a decade, as niche applications — and without CPT codes. For example, craniomaxillofacial care providers generally accept that 3D printing is valuable and integral to patient care,” said Frank Rybicki, M.D., Ph.D., FACR, chair of the ACR Committee on Appropriateness Criteria and founding chair of the RSNA SIG.

“However, when applying for CPT codes, it became clear that this ‘general acceptance’ lacked peer-reviewed literature to demonstrate value. This registry will supply data to benchmark the value of this subspecialty.”

The 3D printing registry will be hosted by the ACR’s National Radiology Data Registry (NRDR) system, a platform for clinical quality registries in imaging.

NRDR currently houses six registries with more than 6,500 participant sites and over 150 million cumulative cases. Information about this new registry, including details about how to participate, will be posted to the NRDR website as it becomes available.

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