The Model of Good Health

This article explores the innovative ways of using advanced modeling, simulation, and analysis software in medical field. In order to meet design requirements, engineers who work for medical device makers have been putting advanced modeling, simulation, and analysis software to use in innovative ways, such as creating models of the human anatomy that can be used to virtually test potential medical technologies. They have also put new tools such as 3D printers to work building model prototypes for real-world testing. The Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health is now creating a simulated human capable of serving as an in-silico guinea pig. The center is building a library of computer regulatory testing models and a family of ‘virtual patients’ for product design and testing. The article also describes that medical device developers can use cinematic rendering, such as an image of the blood vessels in the skull created in Syngio via Frontier, an application enabling the realistic depiction of volume datasets, to help create better treatments.