Steven Keating

I started printing out copies of my tumor, and copies of my brain, you could 3-D print something to use as a surgical tool or as a guide, or even just to have it in the room to point out something to the team of surgeons.

It was much more of trying to visualize what happened, and be able to explain the story and be able to see it, if I hand you a copy of my head 3-D printed, you can get a sense very quickly of here is the tumor, and here is what they did.

The patient has the least access to the data, but has to make the most medical decisions. It was my decision to do surgery or radiation or chemo, what type of chemo, it’s all in the patient’s hands. Usually they just follow what the doctor says, but they don’t have that same access to the data that the doctors do, patients don’t have access to their data legally, they only have access to their designated record, and if it’s not included in there they don’t see it.

With Google Maps, you want to go to the mall, you type it in, it’ll tell you bus, train, walk, bike. It’ll show you different routes and give you different information about the routes. You can plan out your journey based on other’s experiences, in medicine, there’s none of that, so you don’t really know where you are or how you want to get there. You want to get healthy, but you’re not sure how to get there.

In 2014 I started smelling a very faint vinegar smell for 30 seconds or so, for about once a day. After the third or fourth time, I thought that was really weird.

When you break your arm, and you go to the doctor, they’ll show you the X-ray. They’ll say ‘There’s the break, here’s what happened.’ What if we’re talking about something much more complex? What’s the best way to view the MRI could come to you and bring you a 3-D print of your brain or of your broken bone, and show you ‘Here is what we’re doing,’.

It would be great if there was a share button at the hospital, while I’m concerned with privacy, it should be up to the patient. If I wanted to share it with myself or my family or my doctors, I would like to be able to do that in a simple matter.