Introduction to Medical 3D Printing

3D technologies are revolutionising medical treatments and medical education, including creating personalised implants and anatomical models. 3D labs at point-of-care are also emerging, providing more personalised treatment for patients. This course builds on the team's internationally renowned experience in this context and provides an introduction to the field, including a theoretical and a practical (hands-on) component.

New pilot short course

Initially pilot courses are only open to a limited number of University of Bristol staff and postgraduate research students, who provide detailed feedback in exchange for early access to the course. Find out more about pilot courses

Date 23 November 2026
Fee £0
Format Online
Audience Open to a limited number of University of Bristol staff and postgraduate research students only (prerequisites apply).
Organisers Dr Giovanni Biglino, Michele Carrabba and Tasneem Salih

Course profile

This course aims to provide an introduction to the key principles of 3D printing in medicine and give participants a flavour of the process of reconstruction of images through a guided hands-on practical element.

Please click on the sections below for more information. 

All day course, with lectures from experts in the morning and hands-on sessions (guided use of specialised software) in the afternoon.

By the end of the course, participants should be able to:

  1. understand the fundamentals of medical 3D printing, including workflows, materials, and applications across clinical contexts; and
  2. apply hands-on 3D printing techniques through basic practical, guided sessions to build core technical skills.

This course is designed for medical students, healthcare professionals, bioengineering students interested in practical clinical applications, and those interested in CAD and 3D modelling.

This course will cover the fundamentals of medical 3D printing, with morning lectures and afternoon practicals covering:

  1. an introduction to medical 3D printing: principles, terminology, and clinical rationale;
  2. overview of 3D printing technologies and materials used in healthcare;
  3. medical imaging-to-print workflow (image acquisition, segmentation, model preparation);
  4. regulatory, quality, and safety considerations in clinical 3D printing (mentions); 
  5. practical introduction to segmentation software;
  6. hands-on experience preparing a 3D model from medical imaging data; and
  7. guide to the use of 3D printing equipment.

Teaching will be led by Dr Giovanni Biglino, Michele Carrabba and Tasneem Salih.

Please ensure you meet the following prerequisites before booking:

Eligibility This course is available to University of Bristol staff and postgraduate researchers only. Candidates must be able to fully attend the course and provide feedback.
Conditions

Pilot courses are extremely popular and all live sessions must be attended in full. You should only book onto this course if you are able to commit to attending in full and have time to provide detailed feedback.

Attendance is monitored. Failure to attend in full, without a valid reason, will result in your access to pilot course materials being rescinded and you will not be permitted to attend any further pilot courses within the same academic year.

Before booking this course, please make sure you read the information provided above about the target audience and prerequisites. It is important that you have access to the relevant IT resources needed for the course and meet the knowledge prerequisites to ensure you can get the most from the course.

Bookings are taken via our online booking system, for which you must register an account. To check if you are eligible for free or discounted courses please see our fees and voucher packs page. All bookings are subject to our terms and conditions, which can be read in full here.

For help and support with booking a course refer to our booking information page, FAQs or feel free to contact us directly. For available payment options please see: How to pay your short course fees.

Bookings close two weeks before the start of each course. Once all courses have finished for the current academic year we close the booking system for updates, and re-open again in the Autumn. To be notified about our timescales for opening annual registrations and bookings sign up to our mailing list.

Participants are granted access to our virtual learning platform (Blackboard Ultra) 1 to 2 weeks in advance of the course. This allows time for any pre-course work to be completed and to familiarise with the platform.

To gain the most from the course, we recommend that you attend in full and participate in all interactive components. We endeavour to record all live lecture sessions and upload these to the online learning environment within 24 hours. This allows course participants to review these sessions at leisure and revisit them multiple times. Please note that we do not record breakout sessions.

All course participants retain access to the online learning materials and recordings for 5 months after the course.