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“We can now digitally change anatomy and then design and create new anatomical parts for injured patients, helping transform their lives,” says Dr. Rybicki, who has taught innovative medical technologies to a generation of physicians, and is considered a father of medical 3D printing. “3D printing helps change how these patients perceive themselves, and how others perceive them.”

At the same time, he explained in The Lancet, 3D printing is also transforming how doctors perceive themselves. As more hospitals set up 3D printing labs, as at The Ottawa Hospital, the field has begun to weave technology and art together.

“When I trained in the 1990s as a physician-scientist and academic radiologist, I studied theories and methods with a technical, as opposed to an artistic, focus. I looked for ways to scan patients faster and more precisely – methods that are still important,” he says. “But 20 years later, I’ve discovered that the creativity that comes with 3D printing has led to it becoming an art form in medicine, with ‘physician-artists’ working in a new studio – the hospital.”

Medical 3D printing is a form of art because experts can use radiology equipment to digitally change the patient’s anatomy, and then create a new physical version of the patient. As physician-artists do this work, they bring new skill sets into hospitals, such as computer-aided design. They have inherent artistic license as they design, produce, clean and present 3D medical models.

“As a physician-artist, I know when a design is ‘just right’,” he says.  “I will think, or openly exclaim, ‘Don’t touch it anymore. lt’s done. lt’s beautiful.’”

For years, companies have produced medical models using their wider resources and greater expertise in design and manufacturing. They are, however, bound by industry manufacturing standards.

By contrast, when a 3D-printed part is created for personalized medical care, physicians have artistic as well as medical license and a responsibility to treat patients safely. As this field grows, Dr. Rybicki says, there are concerns that physician-artists have too few boundaries imposed on them.

“Think of how, in representing the human body, an artist can distort proportions for emphasis or to evoke a feeling,” he pointed out in The Lancet article. “To what extent does such artistic freedom shape the work of physician-artists specializing in 3D printing? How do they resolve the tension between artistic endeavor and clinical need?”

Through his own work, Dr. Rybicki has identified three key constraints that generate a healthy balance between 3D printing as an art form versus 3D printing as an emerging, materializing medical technology.