Review of the effect of 3D medical printing and virtual reality on urology training with ‘MedTRain3DModsim’ Erasmus + European Union Project

Abstract

Background/aim: It is necessary to incorporate novel training modalities in medical education, especially in surgical fields, because of the limitations of cadaveric training. Traditional medical education has many drawbacks, such as residency working hour restrictions, patient safety conflicts with the learning needs, and the lack of hands-on workshops. The MedTRain3DModsim Project aimed to produce 3-dimensional (3D) medical printed models, simulations, and innovative applications for every level of medical training using novel worldwide technologies. It was aimed herein to improve the interdisciplinary and transnational approaches, and accumulate existing experience for medical education, postgraduate studies, and specialty training. Materials and methods: This project focused on models of solid organs and the urinary system, including the kidney, prostate, ureter, and liver. With 3D medical printing, it is possible to produce a body part from inert materials in just a few hours with the standardization of medical 3D modeling. Results: The target groups of this project included medical students and residents, graduate students from engineering departments who needed medical education and surgical training, and medical researchers interested in health technology or clinical and surgical anatomy. Conclusion: It was also intended to develop a novel imaging platform for education and training by reevaluating the existing data using new software and 3D modalities. Therefore, it was believed that our methodology could be implemented in all related medical fields.

Clinical Value of Patient-Specific Three-Dimensional Printing of Kidney Before Partial Nephrectomy: A Qualitative Assessment

“…5 Although improved surgical outcome remains the important end point for clinical usefulness of 3D printing, the landscape in printing technology is still evolving and most current literature is heterogeneous in terms of type of print material, technology, and its use. 1,3,4,6,7 We used multijet multimaterial printing technology in our pilot study, and assessed it qualitatively using questionnaires for its possible impact on various clinical domains.…”

Development and Validation of a Novel Methodological Pipeline to Integrate Neuroimaging and Photogrammetry for Immersive 3D Cadaveric Neurosurgical Simulation

“…All these factors have contributed to decreased availability and use of cadavers worldwide ( 19 – 23 ). As a result, these recent limitations have paralleled the rapid adoption of new technologies to replace cadavers in anatomical training and international collaborations to maximize the use of the existing cadaver supply ( 19 , 20 , 24 – 26 ).…”

Urologic Surgery in Digital Era: Foresights and Futuristic Approach

“…In order to obtain a more realistic 3D model, editing and repair operations are performed on the program in order to remove the artifacts that occur due to the resolution and quality of the imaging technique. 2 After these processes, a realistic 3D model is obtained in the file format called “The Standard Tesselation Language” or “Standard Triangle Language”, and its abbreviation is expressed as “.stl”. Many small triangles in “.stl” format come together with different angles to give information about the anatomical surface structure of the 3D model ( Figure 1 ).…”