From legacy to local: How mign is transforming orthopedic care with Carbon 3D printing

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the October 2025 print edition of Today's Medical Developments under the headline “From legacy to local: How mign is transforming orthopedic bracing with Carbon 3D printing”.

Orthopedic bracing shouldn’t feel like a battle between patience and pain. Waiting weeks for a brace that doesn’t fit, or makes things worse, however, is still the norm for too many patients. Mass-produced, one-size-fits-all devices, guesswork fittings, and clunky supply chains often leave patients stuck in discomfort while clinicians juggle delays and documentation. Digital orthopedics developer mign intends to change that – putting patients at the heart of orthopedic care, where they belong. mign is redefining the patient experience through mass personalization, harnessing the power of advanced digital design with Carbon’s 3D printing technology to create made-to-measure spine and sports medicine braces fitting perfectly, performing better, supporting accessibility, and improving recovery.

Your size is not a letter

While digital technologies have transformed industries worldwide, processes across the healthcare sector have been comparatively delayed in their evolution. Splints, braces, and other devices are still largely mass-produced, cookie-cutter solutions failing to accommodate individual body shapes, conditions, or lifestyles. For patients with complex needs, the alternative is a slow, inefficient process – months of back-and-forth between doctors, orthotists, and suppliers; multiple fittings; and reliance on outdated manufacturing methods lacking speed and precision.

In the meantime, patients endure pain, restricted mobility, and worsening symptoms while waiting for care. Many face long delays for tailored solutions, while others settle for ill-fitting, off-the-shelf devices that can exacerbate muscle weakness and impede recovery, increasing the risk of further injury. Even custom-made options often fall short, and typically amount to uncomfortable, poorly fitted devices not optimized for real-world use. For clinicians, navigating this fragmented system is often frustrating, requiring significant time and effort with no guarantee of an effective outcome. This outdated cycle often leaves patients underserved and practitioners struggling to deliver the best possible care.

Thankfully, 3D printing is driving a long-overdue transformation. More than just a new manufacturing tool, this precision and efficiency-driving technology is reshaping the entire industry and reframing patient care. As mign demonstrates, the technology is now introducing a digital future, moving from legacy to local and delivering perfectly tailored solutions, 3D printed on-site, precisely matching each patient’s unique phenotype and medical requirements.

Uniquely you, designed by mign

Recognizing the industry challenges, mign saw an opportunity to pioneer change, using the Carbon platform to transform its patient support process. The technology now sits at the heart of mign’s digital factory, not just as a tool, but as the foundation of the company’s business model.

“mign was born out of a widespread issue we saw across the industry,” explains Lisa Tweardy, co-founder and CEO, mign. “Rather than accepting the status quo, we turned a challenge into an opportunity – creating something that we’re now extremely proud of, representing a force for change in an industry that has traditionally been often held back by red tape and siloed treatment paths. Thanks to 3D printing, we can rapidly build virtually any orthopedic support, for any part of the body, and any patient.”

mign is transforming the orthopedic experience via mass personalization, with a production process prioritizing precision and efficiency. Instead of relying on outdated, one-size-fits-all solutions, patients can undergo a state-of-the-art body scan, capturing highly accurate anatomical data for precise diagnostics. mign’s software integrates X-ray data, clinical requirements, and individual biomechanics, generating a customized, breathable, comfortable, and effective design tailored to each patient’s unique needs – often at lower cost than traditional alternatives.

“We’re effectively doing for orthopedics what 3D-printed aligners do for the dental industry: taking a patient’s body scan and adapting it, to give them the support they need, where they need it,” Tweardy says.

By streamlining care pathways and accelerating turnaround times, mign replaces weeks of lengthy fittings and frustration with a seamless, digital-first experience. What once required multiple appointments and manual adjustments – often resulting in devices not entirely comfortable or effective – has been replaced with a streamlined digital workflow. Now devices can be 3D printed in minutes, at a fraction of the cost. This innovation enhances patient experience and presents a huge opportunity to improve accessibility, making high-quality, personalized orthopedic care more widely available than ever before.

“We’ve seen patients spend weeks or even months enduring fittings and treatments, trying multiple splints and costly solutions not right for them. Often, physicians refer them to mign, where they walk away with a perfectly fitting, custom-made product covered by insurance,” Tweardy continues. “We hear and sympathize with the frustrations clinicians face every day in trying to provide the best care, so it’s incredibly gratifying to help alleviate these and offer their patients a solution that truly works.”

A partnership beyond technology

According to Tweardy, mign’s success in transforming patient care hasn’t just been about cutting-edge technology, but about the people and partnership behind it. Far from simply installing a 3D printer and being left to figure it out alone, mign has benefited from a deeply collaborative relationship with Carbon – one extending far beyond the hardware.

“What sets our work with Carbon apart is we’re not just investing in their technology; we’re investing in their team, their expertise, and their way of thinking,” Tweardy says. “From day one, it’s been a true partnership, with constant two-way dialogue helping push our designs to new levels. Carbon’s technical support has been instrumental in refining mign’s approach and supporting the product design process – from optimizing materials and mechanical properties to fine-tuning part configurations for peak performance and producibility.”

According to Tweardy, integrating Carbon’s signature lattice structures allowed mign to enhance comfort, flexibility, and strength within a single component – something traditional manufacturing can’t achieve. This level of collaborative innovation has ensured every aspect of mign’s design, from material selection to structural integrity, is guided by patient insights, cutting-edge technology, and expert insights from both sides.

“Another important aspect that intrigued us about Carbon was the level of control and flexibility their platform offers,” Tweardy continues. “From the speed and adaptability of the technology to the depth of its material library, it gives us unparalleled freedom in design.” This next-level precision allows mign to fine-tune rigidity and softness within a single piece, ensuring each device is engineered not just for fit, but for optimal performance and healing – a difference translating into significantly better patient outcomes.

The future is personal: the next steps in redefining orthopedic care

With Carbon’s 3D printing technology, mign creates highly personalized orthoses for a diverse range of patients daily – from young children to senior citizens, athletes, military personnel, and everyone in between. This innovation drives a shift toward wide-scale personalization in orthopedic care, quickly becoming the new standard. By enabling same-day scanning, design, and printing, mign is reducing treatment costs and expanding access to care, sustainably eliminating the delays and high costs associated with traditional supply chains and inventory.

Looking ahead to the future of orthopedic care, mign is also laying the groundwork for a path away from the sterile, generic, and impersonal experience patients often encounter in clinical settings, reimagining orthopedics as an empowering, expressive, and individualized journey.

Carbon
https://www.carbon3d.com

mign
https://www.mign.design