Dr. Fadi Matar holds a model of a patient’s heart in his hand. A 3D printer recreated the model in precise detail. Using high-resolution scans, the device replicates the exact bulges, bends and delicate surfaces of the organ as if Dr. Matar had somehow removed it from the patient’s chest and froze it in place.

Dr. Matar, interventional heart failure program director and medical director of the David and Tara H. Ruberg Innovation and Research Center of Excellence at the Tampa General Hospital Heart & Vascular Institute, and professor and chief of cardiology at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, uses these models to plan surgeries and transcatheter procedures. Now, before a single incision is made, he can test procedures, study angles and know precisely how a replacement valve will fit.

Inside the cutting-edge Tampa General Hospital | USF Health 3D Medical Visualization and Printing Lab, a bank of specialized printers builds precision replicas of aortas, kidneys, jawbones and other body parts layer by layer. Using advanced software, engineers convert imaging data from CT scans, MRIs and echocardiograms into digital blueprints. Those files guide printers that deposit microscopic layers of resin or polymer, gradually forming a model that mirrors the patient’s anatomy down to the smallest contour.

The 3D model is one of several innovations that have changed the way the academic health system treats heart patients. Dr. Matar, in collaboration with Devid Zille, DDS, OMFS, director of the 3D Medical Visualization and Printing Lab, and assistant professor of medicine at USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, has led the way in discovering new ways to care for heart diseases that used to be largely untreatable. “Now we have hope,” Dr. Matar said. “We have the ability to help people whom we were unable to help previously.”

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, responsible for one in three deaths — more than 919,000 people in 2023 alone — according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More than half of U.S. adults don’t know heart disease holds that title despite more than a century as the nation’s leading cause of death. In this environment, earlier detection and more precise treatment don’t just move care forward — they save lives.

The 3D-printed heart Dr. Matar holds is just the start. The 3D printing lab is developing a pulsatile model — one that will pump fluid exactly as a patient’s heart pumps blood. “What’s not constant is the shape of the heart, especially when disease sets in,” Dr. Matar explained. “So, in the future, I can make a 3D-printed heart that will pump fluid in the way your heart is really pumping the blood.”

These models are already used to plan complex valve repairs and replacements, often revealing risks invisible on scans. Soon, they could also serve as real-time training tools, giving scientists, cardiac surgeons and interventional cardiologists the ability to practice on therapeutic devices as a remarkable functioning replica before ever touching the patient.

Even more precise measurements are coming from another innovation: pressure-volume loop technology. By threading a catheter into the heart, doctors can accurately measure how well the right or left ventricle is functioning. This assessment is critical in deciding whether it can withstand a tricuspid replacement. It’s the kind of detail that can mean a significant difference in the success of the procedure.

For Dr. Matar, these tools aren’t just medical advancements — they’re a way to transform the patient’s odds. “As physicians, when we are faced with suffering patients in front of us, it’s not a good feeling when we cannot give them options,” he said. “Here at Tampa General, we’re fortunate to have a very solid academic heart team.”

For more information about how Tampa General Hospital is advancing cardiovascular care, visit TGH.org/Heart.