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Man Saves Wife's Sight By 3D Printing Her Tumor
An anonymous reader writes: Michael Balzer, a former software engineer and Air Force technical instructor, found himself unsatisfied with a doctor's diagnosis of a small tumor behind his wife's left eye. Balzer had recently become proficient at creating 3D models, so he asked the doctor for the raw medical imaging data and took a look himself. In addition to correcting a later misdiagnosis, Balzer 3D printed models of his wife's cranium and helped neurosurgeons plan a procedure to remove the tumor, instead of waiting to see how it developed, like previous doctors had recommended. During the procedure, surgeons found the tumor was beginning to entangle her optic nerve, and even a six-month wait would have had dire consequences for her eyesight.
Medical researchers like Dr. Michael Patton believe this sort of prototyping will become "the new normal" in a very short time. He says, "What you can now do through 3D printing is like what you're able to do in the software world: Rapid iteration, fail fast, get something to market quickly. You can print the prototypes, and then you can print out model organs on which to test the products. You can potentially obviate the need for some animal studies, and you can do this proof of concept before extensive patient trials are conducted.
Medical researchers like Dr. Michael Patton believe this sort of prototyping will become "the new normal" in a very short time. He says, "What you can now do through 3D printing is like what you're able to do in the software world: Rapid iteration, fail fast, get something to market quickly. You can print the prototypes, and then you can print out model organs on which to test the products. You can potentially obviate the need for some animal studies, and you can do this proof of concept before extensive patient trials are conducted.
I'm not a vet student, but I did spend a night helping one study the sinuses of a large animal (they split in to large animal (farm) and small animal (pet) specialties) and some of the learning materials are a little difficult to wrap your brain around, in particular how the sinuses (voids in the skull) exist inside the skull, how they connect (or don't) and simply where they are. The brain has enough trouble understanding negative spaces, even more trouble trying to conceptualize the winding, twisting 3D negative spaces you can't ever directly view without cutting apart a skull to do so. Even then doing so only gives you half the picture, and in negative space.
There are some videos online showing the sinuses in "positive 3D space" but it's still only a reference (Everyone is different) so I would imagine having a 3D positive space model of a tumor you've never seen and can't see without cutting open someone's head would be incredibly helpful, especially since you can't just buy off the shelf reference material for human tumors like you can bovine sinuses.
moox. for a new generation.
this entire story is nonsense, speaking as a qualified medical physicist in radiotherapy with decades of experience. First of all, for him to make a 3D model of a tumour, he is having to decide based on CT and/or MRI data what is or isnt the tumour, which by the way you might have noticed is the same information from the CT and/or MR scan that qualified radiologists and oncologists look at, and using treatment diagnosis and planning software (including auto segmentation techniques). So unless this guy suddenly read a book one night and became a fucking oncologist, he didnt pick out SHIT from a CT data set that a qualified oncologist "missed". Nor did he tell surgeons "how to get at" the tumour in a way that implies that was the holdup, like he figured it out while people who work with this for decades didnt get it.
ah now wait a minute, halfway down the article
"So although the first doctors told them to wait, Balzer and Scott sent the MRI results to a handful of neurologists around the country. Nearly all of them agreed that Scott needed surgery."
correct. OTHER QUALIFIED DOCTORS diagnosed the issue. Not some fucking clown with a 3D printer.
"The tumor had grown substantially, which indicated a far more grave condition than was initially diagnosed. But back at home, Balzer used Photoshop to layer the new DICOM files on top of the old images, and realized that the tumor hadn’t grown at all — the radiologist had just measured from a different point on the image."
this makes no sense at all and has either been misreported, or he went to a pretend hospital staffed by retards. NO INFORMATiON WHATSOEVER came to light from a 3D printed model of the SAME FUCKING DATA thats in the image. If someone measured wrong on a scan thats an error, just go back and review the images, or send them off again for a 2nd opinion rather than waste your time printing a fucking useless model
he sent a 3d model /image round when instead all he had to do was send the SOURCE DICOM files to these other doctors, which would have resulted in the exact same solution.
Fuck, every single time you see a story in your own field and realise its utter bullshit, you realise that ALL stories must be fucking bullshit, its just that you cant check up on stuff youre not involved with so easily
I could see this as a growth industry for hospitals (hey, we need the money)
Not really, according to 60 minutes. Hospitals have no problem getting money. They're rolling in the dough and can afford to pay their CEOs millions of dollars. So called non-profit hospitals mark up prices many times. Really, don't fool yourself with a statement like that.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
My wife recently went in for an ultrasound, and the machine clearly booted up Windows XP. I'm sure they can't install updates it without it being a certified upgrade, so they do nothing.
Meanwhile, whatever hackers are finding their ways into the hospital's network probably aren't quite so fussy about the certification of their malware.
John
1. Apply knife to throat. As our Muslim brethren have shown us, even a small knife will do. You just need to make sure he's soundly asleep...
2. Bring your new swag home, and finish the work with a spoon, then let it dry and polish