Additive Manufacturing gets a lot of headlines for how it can be implanted in the body. Stories surface almost weekly of jaws, skulls, teeth, and other bones being implanted in the body with perfect fit, reduced lead time to create the implants and recovery time after surgery, less chance of rejection, and overall lower cost.
What is not nearly as widely understood is how the technology helps during actual medical procedures like surgery, through training.
Surgeons in training can take up to 10 years to be deemed proficient enough to operate on sensitive organs and body parts and it can be very difficult to find cadavers with brain tumors or embalisms. Surgeons can, however, produce relatively inexpensive 3D printed models of the disease on which they intend to operate.
These models can simulate different tissues, from that as soft as fat to as hard as bone. Additionally, instructions on where to make the incisions can be printed directly into the "flesh." This way, surgeons can simulate each step of a surgery without any risk. This helps new surgeons learn how to do procedures with which they have little experience, but also gives experienced surgeons a trial run on an exact replica of the patient's tissue on whom they are about to operate.
Due to the not readily apparent variance of each course, golfers are allowed to play a few practice rounds to learn the intricacies of each hole. Since each organ and it's disease is also unique, one should hope that surgeons would be afforded the same luxury, especially when the stakes are raised from a mere trophy to the balance of life and death.
Since the technology exists today, we should empower every surgeon with a practice round. The added cost of an operable model is a minute fraction of the cost of the overall surgery. With widespread implementation the reduction in errors and therefore malpractice insurance premiums should pay for itself without even considering the incalculable value of a human life.