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Viewpoint
December 3, 2014

The Shape of Things to Come: 3D Printing in Medicine

Author Affiliations
  • 1Investigative Medicine Program, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
  • 2Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, Section of General Internal Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
  • 3Department of Health Policy and Management, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut
  • 4Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Yale–New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut
JAMA. 2014;312(21):2213-2214. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.9542

3D printing—a manufacturing technique by which objects are built from digital data in a way analogous to how computer text is printed on a page—has captured the imagination of many with its potential to offer flexible, inexpensive manufacturing for widespread use. 3D printers have been used to build everything from rockets to houses to guns to other 3D printers, their capabilities limited only by access to a low-cost 3D printer, a set of digital blueprints, and some ingenuity.

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