International standardization of medical 3D printing and scanning
Korean researchers are taking the lead in developing standards for creating patient-customized medical devices. Such standards are expected to be of great help in promoting public health, revitalizing the related medical equipment industry, but also spreading digital twins and metaverse.
The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) approved three new international standard development tasks for medical image-based medical 3D printing modeling and established a working group for 3D scanning standard development. Two related international standards, which began development in 2019, are about to be finalized.
The three newly adopted standardization items address the evaluation process for precision/accuracy evaluation in the manufacturing process of medical 3D printing implants based on CT images, precision/accuracy error evaluation method in the human tissue segmentation stage and 3D modeling stage, and the operating procedure for creating a data set.
Until now, printing models had to be made by hand because it is not easy to clearly distinguish the tissue parts in the image. When this standard is completed, the research team expects to be able to evaluate the precision/accuracy with standardized procedures and methods for medical 3D printing modeling software, which will be of great help in domestic and overseas medical 3D printing software licensing.
The design time can also be reduced from 24 hours to around 3 hours. Comprehensive quality control is also easy. Above all, when it will be commercialized, it is expected to help establish a new medical paradigm, such as predicting treatment effects and prescribing optimal drug through virtual simulation based on personal health data.
Experts from the US FDA, RSNA, and DICOM are also expected to participate in this standardization work, so it is expected to have a big impact on the medical and related industries.
ETRI established a working group (AHG-3) for the development of 3D scanning standards and held its first meeting on the June 16th. The working group will discover international standard issues linking 3D scanning and 3D printing in the future, develop technical reports and establish an international standardization roadmap.
