This is a cool application, but 3D reconstruction of DICOM images isn't that new. For example, there is the Mimics commercial package that is on version 17, an

This is a cool application, but 3D reconstruction of DICOM images isn't that new. For example, there is the Mimics commercial package that is on version 17, and similar things are actually quite commonly used by radiologists. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimics) Patient-specific surgery, and computer analysis in diagnosis and treatment is going to be very big (I'm betting four years of my life in doing a PhD in the field). Its always interesting when there is patient or family led efforts in the field, but this kind of thing was cutting edge in research probably 10-15 years ago (I 3D printed aortic aneurysms as an undergrad in ~2009 for a surgery planning project, and it wasn't a new thing then - example http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s100160010054 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s100160010054). Its curious then why 3D printing for surgery planning hasn't become the standard-of-care yet. My instinct is that we'll see more improvements to 3D rendering, planning, and simulation on the computer, but a physical model is not that additionally helpful to surgeons for most cases. Especially considering increased cost and time compared to a computer model.