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Rare diseases are often referred to as orphan diseases due to drug companies' disinterest in adopting them to develop treatments. As patient groups are so small, there is often very little incentive for pharma companies to work on new treatments. The same is true for medical devices. We speak to the International Rare Disease Research Consortium about its new working group on MedTech for rare diseases to find out about its goals, the role of medical devices in rare disease diagnostics and care, and the unmet needs and challenges in this area.

3D printing has the potential to revolutionise drug and device manufacturing by allowing products to be printed at healthcare facilities tailored to patients. But the FDA still has some questions around what the regulation would look like for point-of-care manufacturing of medical devices and is currently seeking feedback from healthcare professionals on the matter. We explore how 3D printing could change the game for personalised patient care and the potential safety and regulatory concerns involved.