Prescription For The Future

Bengaluru-based Osteo3d makes 3D-printed medical models and guides to help surgeons better plan and execute surgeries

- Varsha Meghani

In mid-2015, a five-month-old girl from Chitradurga district in Karnataka was diagnosed with craniosynostosis. Two bones of her skull were fused together, hindering the development of her brain. It’s a condition that affects 1 in 2,000 babies worldwide.

A team of doctors at Sakra World Hospital in Bengaluru took up the case, and in what was India’s first endoscopic “skull expansion” surgery, successfully separated the bones in the deformed skull. Post-operation, doctors employed a helmet, which exerts pressure on indicated parts of the skull, gently manipulating its growth in the desired direction.

“Normally, such helmets are made in the US. They cost about ₹1.5-2 lakh and it takes 2-3 weeks for them to reach you,” says Dr Derick Mendonca, consultant plastic surgeon, who performed the operation. In this case, however, he was able to provide the baby with a helmet in just 3-4 days for a mere ₹20,000.

Bengaluru-based Osteo3d was behind this little miracle. The startup designed and manufactured a customised helmet for the infant, using 3D printing technology. Founded in 2014 by Deepak Raj, 45, Osteo3d—then DF3D—began as a B2C marketplace selling 3D-printed bric-a-brac like jewellery. However, within six months, the company pivoted to a B2B model, focusing on health care. “We were bleeding and couldn’t sustain ourselves,” says Raj, a former GE employee involved in the software and product development of patient monitoring devices.

Today, Osteo3d designs and fabricates 3D-printed pre-surgery models and guides, specifically for dentistry work, neurosurgeries and maxillofacial surgeries. It has assisted doctors in over 350 cases across India so far.