rapid prototyping and reverse engineering combine together to form a valuable resource for modelling patient data in medicine. in complex medical cases, it is common to use ct and mri to create 3d images of data used in diagnosis and treatment planning. this book covers a range of applications where advanced manufacturing technology can be applied to medical procedures. early chapters look at the reverse engineering process, where patient data is converted into a machine-readable format to allow users to create system solutions to medical problems. it goes on to investigate how the software systems are used to create these solutions ready for building. applications follow where models are created using a variety of different techniques to suit different medical problems. finally, the research issues are investigated to determine how these technologies can be further developed to solve problems more effectively in the future.