RSNA 2013 - ICII23 - 3D printing: bridging the gap between theory and practice

In an interesting session the prerequistes for 3D printing were shown as well as an overview of the available techniques for 3d printing. One clear message was that the integration into the normal workflow is not achieved as of yet. Furthermore, reimbursement of 3D printing is not available yet thus hampering its wide scale application.

Basically great potential was show for 3d printing in education, training, intervention planning, and evalution using patient specific phantoms for for example flow measurement. Although 3d printing is not yet into mainstream in radiology and medicine the near future will show an increased use of this new feature.

TED: Printing human organs

And at TED there was a presentation on actually printing human organs:

http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_printing_a_human_kidney.html

3D printing is really entering the medical arena

Some hospitals are now moving to really using 3D printing in day-to-day practice. 3D printing is used to print a model of complex anatomy to help surgeons in planning their interventions. Read more at the Health&Science webpage of theWashington Post.

Scientists Build Vascular Network Using Sugar and a 3-D Printer

Check out the coverage of IEEE Spectrum:

Scientists Build Vascular Network Using Sugar and a 3-D Printer