Adoption of Additive Manufacturing in Hospitals – Multiple Case Study

Abstract: Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a technology that can revolutionize the healthcare industry in terms of customization. Various studies and ongoing practice have proved the potential of AM in clinical use as enormous. However, to reach a routine level of adoption of AM in patients’ care, there are various things to consider. The purpose of the thesis is to reveal the key factors that will affect the hospital adoption of AM in different Swedish regions. The literature revealed the advantages and disadvantages of different manufacturing systems for hospital AM use and the main benefits and challenges in the different clinical applications of AM. Four exploratory case studies were carried out to identify the key factors in terms of AM hospital adoption, which have a comparative design. The four case studies are four different regions with different levels regarding AM hospital use. Purposive sampling was applied to choose the interested regions, while snowball sampling was used for selecting interview participants. The findings were analyzed via thematic analysis. Results show that key factors will mostly have both pushing and pulling effects regarding AM hospital use. Key factors were divided into the themes of Implementation, Management and Behavior. Aspects falling under Management are mentioned the most frequently in the interviews, suggesting that these factors play an important role in the adoption of AM. Theme Behavior is not previously found in the literature on AM in clinical use. Close communication among different levels and cross disciplines will positively affect the adoption of AM, as it will improve the AM awareness rate and result in more clinical champions. Concluded that a centralized AM adoption faces numerous factors which should be properly evaluated before the initiation. Apart from having an economic model to prove the business possibility, a top-down strategy to build an intensive AM information exchange will lead to a better and smooth adoption in healthcare.