Advanced Image Segmentation and Modeling - A Review of the 2021-2022 Thematic Series

Medical 3D printing is a form of manufacturing that benefits patient care, particularly when the 3D printed part is patient-specific and either enables or facilitates an intervention for a specific condition. Most of the patient-specific medical 3D printing begins with volume based medical images of the patient. Several digital manipulations are typically performed to prescribe a final anatomic representation that is then 3D printed. Among these are image segmentation where a volume of interest such as an organ or a set of tissues is digitally extracted from the volumetric imaging data. Image segmentation requires medical expertise, training, software, and effort. The theme of image segmentation has a broad intersection with medical 3D printing. The purpose of this editorial is to highlight different points of that intersection in a recent thematic series within 3D Printing in Medicine.