One aspect that has to be considered in medical applications for RP
technologies in the USA is the enormous problem of medical liability.
Reality is that when something goes wrong, no matter what the involvement or
how remote the application was from the actual surgery, you have the
possibility of being sued.
In the US, the other questions arises in that who is going to pay for the
model. Insurance? The patient outside of insurance? The doctor? The
hospital? At least two firms in the US has been doing work in RP for
medical applications, particularily the neurosurgery of newborn skull defect
(commonly known as blow out defects) where RP gives the surgeon a tremendous
advantage of being able to visualize in 3D how he/she is going to
reconstruct the skull before the surgery. However, the patient population
for this type of work is small overall compared to other markets and
potentials. And, who is paying for what is still an issue.
B. J. Arnold-Feret
ppsltd@airmail.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Neuro Surgery <NeuroSur@ahsl.co.nz>
To: rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi <rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi>
Date: Monday, November 01, 1999 8:50 PM
Subject: Biomodelling...colour RP...what RP vendors must do
>It has long been said that medical applications of RP, or biomodelling, is
>the 'sleeping giant' of RP.
>
>It is interesting to read the discussion from the group regarding what
>vendors must do etc. Clearly if the biomodelling giant is to be woken
>vendors must be prepared to seriously address the inadequacies of RP as
>related to medical applications.
>
>Colour is very important to the surgeon who wants to study the
relationships
>of bone, blood vessels and pathological tissues. We have long painted our
SL
>biomodels to highlight these differing tissues with good effect (see
><http://www.qmi.asn.au/anatomics> for good examples). The Stereocol SL
resin
>from Zeneca has been especially useful as it is FDA approved and allows a
>2nd colour to be used. This second colour in transparent SL biomodels can
be
>extremely useful in assessing internal features such as tumour, teeth or
>blood vessels that lie within bone. FDM seemed like a promising technology
>but little has been heard of lately.
>
>However, we are a long way from having a credible hospital friendly RP
>apparatus and until vendors take this enormous potential market seriously
>and inject R&D capital, the giant will continue to snore.
>
>Dr Paul D'Urso MB., BS., PhD.
>Email: neurosur@ahsl.co.nz
>Phone: +64 9 379 7837
>Fax: +64 9 307 4924
>
>
>For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
>
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
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