Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology, known as additive manufacturing, is an advanced technology that rapidly developed in the late 20^th century. In the medical field, 3D printing technology has achieved breakthrough progress in medical model manufacturing, implant placement, and prosthodontics and orthodontics. In this paper, the application of 3D printing technology from the perspective of orthodontics, such as dental models, clear aligners, orthodontic brackets, transfer trays, and removable appliances, is reviewed. The application of 3D printing technology is increasingly used in the orthodontic field due to its advantages of high accuracy, high efficiency, simple operation and personalization, and an increasing number of economic applications in the medical field are worth the wait.

As the world becomes older, sustainable healthy aging becomes an important goal of social development. Robotic technologies have been widely considered an effective solution to reduce the labor demand and cost in aged care, thus providing satisfiable services to the elderly while keeping the cost low. The global outbreak of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has strengthened this trend when it impacted the elderly most because (1) the elderly was generally the most vulnerable population group to pandemics, and (2) the resources available to the elderly significantly declined due to lockdown and quarantines. The observations and experience from COVID-19 inspired us to consider the impact of pandemics on sustainable healthy aging, which was largely missing in existing work, leading to the study of the use of robots in general and telepresence robots in specific to aid sustainable healthy aging. The methodology of systematic review is applied to retrieve and analyze the articles published in nine databases between 2010 and 2020. Based on the review, the paper classifies the applications of robots in pandemics into four main categories, including healthcare, social support, education, and manufacturing. Further analysis of these applications revealed the missing features and challenges in applying them to healthy aging. The discoveries and findings in this paper provide practical guidelines for the future design and development of (telepresence) robots.

To date, the manual segmentation in radiotherapy contouring is featured with time- and effort-consuming and low efficiency. Therefore, it is imperative to develop novel technology to improve the precision and repeatability about the segmentation of radiotherapy contouring. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) delineation in tumor targets during radiotherapy has shown up, which contains the methods based on template atlas, image segmentation, and deep learning. Intelligent delineation of radiotherapy makes the automatic delineation of organs at risk possible, saves operators' time, and reduces the heterogeneity of contouring, which greatly increases the accuracy and quality of the contouring delineation in radiotherapy. All in all, automatic delineation of radiotherapy based on AI is flourishing. Researchers should further learn to build recognized standards and develop mature technologies to fulfill the clinical application in the near future.

Chinese Visible Human (CVH) data sets have been widely used in anatomical teaching and scientific research. Based on true-color, thin-thickness, and high-resolution images which are much more superior than computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasound, human organs have been segmented and three-dimensional (3D) reconstructed, and the organs have higher accuracy and more detailed information, which makes complex anatomical structures simplified, and makes abstract anatomical structure visualization. Through CVH and their 3D models, researchers got much more anatomical new finding and understanding about human anatomy, which can update anatomical reference books and atlas, and can provide more human morphological information for medical students, surgeons, and anatomists. Here, we will provide a brief summary of the CVH data sets and its applications in teaching and research in recent years.

The treatment of bone defects, especially large-area bone defects caused by trauma, congenital malformations, senile diseases, and other factors, is often the key and difficult point of orthopedic diseases, which often brings a lot of troubles in the daily work of orthopedic physicians. Bone tissue engineering attempts to repair bone defects using three-dimensional (3D) bioprinted living tissue, and induces osteoblasts to differentiate and proliferate by placing biological scaffolds, thus finally forming bone tissue commensurate with the original tissue functional structure, reducing the difficulty of surgery. Compared with the traditional bone grafting surgery, it causes less trauma to patients. It is an emerging technology with crossover and cutting edge, and has huge application space and good application prospect in biomedical field. In this article, the clinical application of 3D bioprinting technology in various orthopedic fields in recent 5 years is briefly discussed.

Recent clinical research emphasizes utilizing virtual reality (VR) technology in cognitive impairment rehabilitation. The high immersion and polymorphism make a practical option in cases where the current head-mounted devices (HMD). VR has been used in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. The function of HMD is better than traditional therapies in clinical diagnosis; however, its application in treatment for AD patients remains unclear. The Web of Science databases were searched from January 2016 to August 2021. In addition, research or review articles were filtered according to the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines. We bring into a total of 11 studies published in recent 5 years which show high degree of clinical feasibility. One study showed combined cognitive-behavioral therapy and VR in designing a reminiscence therapy for dementia patients; five other studies were focused on spatial navigation and posture positioning for AD patients and one of them showed effective clinical feasibility; other two studies were aimed at helping AD patients who lacked of attention and failed to propose unique advantage due to the samples data were not large enough for clinical validation. Last three studies were using a comprehensive task model in overall cognitive level and obtain considerable training in specific AD patients. HMD VR has become a reliable tool for cognitive rehabilitation in AD patients' prophylactic treatment: Patients with AD in nursing homes and families showed greater interest in VR-based attention and spatial way finding tasks, and their performance was better for a period of time after the end of the task. Combining the VR tasks with clinical cognitive theory and traditional task models will exert more benefits. More clinical case will further determine the potential of VR in AD patients to develop a practical new path for cognitive rehabilitation in the near future.

Ever since the concept of artificial intelligence (AI) has been suggested, it has undergone years of research and development. Under the current condition of rapid development of information and data technology, AI has shown significant effective value and application capability in multiple fields, especially in medical treatment. AI has become essential for routine medical treatment. This review summarizes the current clinical application of AI in orthopedics, in reference to the basic principle of AI, AI supported in clinical diagnosis, AI supported in clinical decision-making, AI supported clinical surgery, and the combination of AI and telemedicine. At the same time, this review also specifies the advantages, disadvantages, and capability of AI in the current clinical application, to provide some understanding for further research of AI.

In recent years, the application of three-dimensional printing (3DP) in the field of medicine has been expanding and has become the focus of clinical research and application. The 3D reconstruction and 1:1 model can be used to analyze and evaluate the prosthesis installation before operation and improve the accuracy and clinical effect of total hip replacement. In particular, the preoperative evaluation of total hip arthroplasty (THA) in patients with spinal-pelvic sagittal plane deformity is significant. Lumbar degeneration is one of the most common spinal-pelvic sagittal plane malformations, it is difficult to determine acetabular anteversion in THA for these patients, and it is easy to cause postoperative complications. At present, 3DP has been used to determine the anteversion of THA in patients with lumbar degenerative disease, and this article reviews the research and application of 3DP in anteversion evaluation of THA for lumbar degenerative disease, as well as its clinical advantages and challenges.

Computer technology has undergone decades of advancement since its emergence and has been extensively used in various fields of life. Under the existing environment of rapid development of information and data technology, computer technology has also shown significant application value and application potential in medical treatment. The combination of computer technology and medicine has formed a new field described as digital medicine. This article reviews the progress in the application of digital medicine in pediatric orthopedics from the aspects of three-dimensional (3D) model reconstruction, virtual reality technology, 3D printing, artificial intelligence, robots, and biomechanical analysis by finite element method. At the same time, this paper also preliminarily discusses the advantages and disadvantages of digital medicine in the current clinical application and possible future developments.

Psychophysiological decompensation as a result of occupational stress leads to impairment of occupational performance. Adequate recovery from psychological stress is necessary to maintain occupational performance. It is possible to measure the psychophysiological status and recovery during sleep with health data streamed from biomedical digital devices. Such data, with reference to heart and sleep parameters, could be processed to reflect health status and whether there is a risk of psychophysiological decompensation. This article describes the interpretation of resting heart rate measures, heart rate variability, and actigraphy measures during regular sleep in relation to psychological stress. Interpretation of the health data should be done by informed health-care professionals in combination with clinical history taking. The article does not cover digital measurements while awake and active. The aim of this review article is to provide an evidence-based rationale to health professionals how to interpret digital health data profiles from biomedical devices in appraising psychological stress and recovery. The objective is to prevent the adverse impact of psychological stress on health. Specific lifestyle measures and therapy to manage psychological stress, such as exercise, diet, and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, are not discussed in this article. Applications are especially relevant in the field of occupational health in preventing occupational burnout, achieving a healthy work–life balance, and sustaining a healthy working life. There are future implications with regard to disease prevention as a large proportion of chronic diseases, for example, hypertension, diabetes depression, and ischemic heart disease, are related to chronic psychological stress. Stress monitoring with biomedical devices should occur over periods of work and nonwork days.

This article reviews the role of mimicking materials used in focused ultrasound surgery (FUS) under magnetic resonance imaging. FUS is a noninvasive surgery that has many applications in oncology and neurology. Phantoms (mimicking materials) are mostly based in agar or gelatin phantoms.

Advancements in technology have always had major impacts on medicine. Increased use of smartphone and related software applications has created a new era in clinical data exchange among patients and clinicians. Teledentistry is a combination of telecommunications and dentistry, involving the exchange of clinical information and images over remote distances for dental consultation and treatment planning. It has the potential to address many of the problems related to access, cost efficiency and quality of dental care. Through teleconsultation with specialists in larger communities, a dentist in a nearby community can provide access to specialty care for their patients easily. Teledentistry can extend care to underserved patient populations, such as those in rural areas, at a reasonable cost. This review article aims to emphasize the importance of teledentistry in various specialties of dentistry and its role in serving the underserved population.

The emerging rapidly developing new technologies bring digital applications into our society. Digital technology had been widely applied to various health-care fields including the area of preventative health care. Digital preventative health care is the provision of health-care services for the prevention of diseases, controlling of disease processes, and other health-care services related to preventative health care by the use of digital technology. It is an essential element in the future development of the health-care environment. This review article highlights the current situation of digital technology used in providing health-care services for disease prevention in Myanmar health-care environment. It also covers the future direction of implementing digital technology in other specific areas of preventative health care in Myanmar designed to provide health-care delivery and services more effectively.

The pursuit of digital biomarkers wherein signal outputs from biosensors are collated to inform health-care decisions continues to evolve at a rapid pace. In the field of neurodegenerative disorders, a goal is to augment subjective patient-reported inputs with patient-independent verifiable data that can be used to recommend interventive measures. For example, in the case of Alzheimer's disease, such tools might preselect patients in the presymptomatic and prodromal phases for definitive positron emission tomographic analysis, allowing accurate staging of disease and providing a reference point for subsequent therapeutic and other measures. Selection of appropriate and meaningful digital biomarkers to pursue, however, requires deep understanding of the disease state and its ecological relationship to the instrumental activities of daily living scale. Similar opportunities and challenges exist in a number of other chronic disease states including Parkinson's, Huntington's, and Duchenne's disease, multiple sclerosis, and cardiovascular disease. This review will highlight progress in device technology, the need for holistic approaches for data inputs, and regulatory pathways for adoption. The review focuses on published work from the period 2012–2017 derived from online searches of the most widely used abstracting portals.

Wearable technologies designed to deliver benefits to health and well-being through the use of digital applications are becoming increasingly ubiquitous. This article focuses on the use of wearable technologies which track user lifestyle behaviors and seek to provide tools for better personal health management. It provides an evidence of general positive health outcomes from previous research and provides a detailed analysis of the functionalities and strategic approaches of three different wearable devices which have been used continuously and simultaneously by the lead author for over 18 months. Based on the experience of long-term use of these devices, the article draws some conclusions about their usage and future development strategies.

Fuzzy nature of decision-making process in healthcare enforces technology producers and researchers to employ creative and smooth solutions. Conversion from fuzzy concepts and ideas to crisp values causes loss of precision and weakens the output decisions. A promising bundle of techniques, soft computing, is a fast developing and popular area that helps meet this creative and smooth need in healthcare. In this study, fuzzy logic (FL) application in healthcare decision-making is examined. The number of publications is rising each year related to FL application in healthcare. FL can be used as a classifier, or in a selection process of a certain type of disease, or diseased patients, or determining the risk ratio of a disease, or in a data mining algorithm, or in constructing a decision support system. This study is a descriptive study aiming to examine and explain FL applications in healthcare.

The electronic medical record (EMR) is now nearly ubiquitous in the USA. This article will review the EMR system with respect to goals, utilization, advantages compared with hand written records, as well as problems and/or disadvantages of the EMR system.