As a graduate student, Teran worked with plastic surgeon Court Cutting at New York University Medical Center using computer graphic methods to develop statistical descriptions of three-dimensional images of craniofacial malformations and propose surgical methods for their correction. Cutting uses CT scans of each patient and employs a computer to map those images onto the image of a normal skull.

Once the hardware and software are available, it could take up to 20 years for this technology to become widely used by cost conscious hospitals and health care systems. But ultimately, Teran says, doctors will have access to the tools that will allow them to simulate abnormalities in any organ system based on computerized MRI and CT scans.

1 Comments

1. 1. nwjohn 10:10 AM 12/8/07

   The time predictions in this article are too pessimistic. Much of the technology required is here now. In the UK we already have prototype systems being developed by multi-disciplinary teams (clinicians, computer scientists, physicists, psychologists, etc). We will have a patient specific virtual environment trainer for interventional radiology deployed in a cost concious hospital in 2 years time, not 20.
   
   Prof. Nigel John
   Bangor University, UK

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