Founded a decade ago by Wesly Jacobs, Dimitri Buytaert, Pieter De Backer, and Tim Martens, PrintPlace has grown into a product developer with extensive experience in accessible custom projects.
Over the years, we have witnessed the company deliver services across the fashion, art, and other industries. The next chapter of this journey will be dedicated to healthcare 3D printing as the company found a new home on the Moorselbaan campus, giving AZORG Hospitals the opportunity to take the lead on point-of-care medical 3D printing in the Belgian market.
At its new headquarters on the Moorselbaan campus, PrintPlace boasts advanced 3D visualization tools, 3D scanners, and around thirty 3D printers.
“The greatest added value lies in the preliminary process: co-creating a solution, engineering, design, testing, and fine-tuning,” says Jacobs. “In recent years, we’ve developed several customized solutions for services like Cardiology and Vascular Surgery. By being physically present within AZORG, we can now go through that process together with healthcare providers, in direct consultation and close to the patient.”
This proximity allows us to adapt even more quickly and develop solutions that not only perfectly match specific healthcare needs, but can also be quickly tested and implemented in practice. In this way, AZORG offers a complete one-stop shop: from concept and visualization to prototype and, if desired, to production in small and medium-sized series, the founders explain.
A first tangible result of this approach is an innovative project within the Urology department, led by Dr. Geert De Naeyer. In collaboration with PrintPlace, a new guidance tool for prostate punctures was developed, with the aim of working more accurately, efficiently, and patient-friendly.
“In our daily practice, we encountered the limitations of existing tools. They were expensive, not always available, or didn’t fully meet our needs. By developing this tool together, we can work much more effectively. We are currently in the patient testing phase, and the initial results are promising”, Dr. Geert De Naeyer, urologist at AZORG, comments.
This project demonstrates that customized solutions, developed within the hospital context itself, can have a direct impact on diagnosis and treatment, thus benefiting the patient.
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