Jeff Sorenson is the President and Chief Executive Officer of TeraRecon. He is responsible for ensuring that TeraRecon remains an innovative company with excellent relationships with its customers, employees, shareholders and the medical imaging community. He has been instrumental in achieving growth, increased customer satisfaction and the commercialization of disruptive new technologies. Mr. Sorenson will be a speaker at the #3DHEALS2018 conference on April 20-21st, 2018. 
Jenny: When was the first encounter you had with 3D printing? What was that experience like? What were you thinking at that moment?
Jeff: As CEO of an advanced visualization company, 3D printing was always a capability we supported, so it has been so long ago that it is difficult to remember. What was remarkable, was the first time I saw a print using a new direct 3D image to 3D print technology we were experimenting with – it is truly ‘what you see is what you get.’ A great multi-color glossy print of human anatomy that is life-like and life-size is truly stunning. We all know where our heart is, and about what size it is. But, when you put a lifelike 3D print in your hand it seems to erase what you thought and allow you to connect with the reality of that heart being a part of you. This is true to an even greater extent for patients, and it is so powerful. In the end, we introduced this new approach for generating these remarkable 3D prints, which debuted at RSNA16 and was shown at 3DHeals 2017.
Jenny: What inspired you to start your journey in 3D printing (bio-fabrication/bio-printing)?
Jeff: Honestly, it was not my vision that brought the company into 3D printing. It was Gael Kuhn, Director of Product Management at TeraRecon. He jokes that the toughest part of making our 3D Print Pack Portal was convincing me that we should do it. The market is quite small and uncertain, but we see unmatched levels of interest in 3D printing, second only to artificial intelligence for image processing.
Jenny: What motivates you the most for your work?
Jeff: I am passionate about building great people, and having fun. A hard-charging team that has permission to fail and knows that they will get credit for their successes is what creates a workday that is more like a playday. Patient care sometimes seems broken from a business perspective, and yet miraculous from humankind perspective. We must find technology solutions to most of these problems. Healthcare providers are technology companies now. They both manufacture and consumer technology, just as they do with 3D models. I am seeing a very synergistic tie between the image processing intelligence of AI and the need for more automated or even fully automated 3D segmentation tools. The same technology allows realistic, anatomic models to be viewed in an augmented reality headset instead of needing to be printed at all.  The lines are blurring when it comes to imaging workflows that are viewed in the screen, or hover in the air out of the screen, and of course can then be 3D printed and placed in your hand. When models are digital, you can do more with them, like ‘walk’ into them. When they are printed, they last forever and provide a tactile experience. There has never been a more exciting time to be involved in the translation of source medical images into works of information and art.
Jenny: What is/are the biggest obstacle(s) in your line of work? If you have conquered them, what were your solutions?
Jeff: 3D printing was too cumbersome for many years. Using industrial types of segmentation software produced models that were sometimes imagined and then sculpted in the processing tools. They were far too time-consuming to produce, and not very realistic. In addition, the price of a printer could not be justified by the actual workload. To solve these problems, we created a way that our iNtuition medical grade segmentation tools could be applied to quickly create an output file that carried with it all the beauty, color and realism of the image in the iNtuition workstation. In addition, we created a portal that can print these files using a cloud printing service that dramatically reduces the fully-burdened per-piece cost.
Jenny: What do you think is (are) the biggest challenge(s) in 3D Printing/bio-printing? What do you think the potential solution(s) is (are)?
Jeff: The price per cubic centimeter for a model is dropping rapidly. The technology is becoming more and more accessible. But, still, models are in the range of $50 to $500 when an entire imaging interpretation has reimbursement on the low end of this range. When it is too expensive to print the models, then don’t. There is a strong argument for holographic or even simple interactive pictures with 3D renderings appearing as they do in a video game, or as we do in advanced visualization today. It is the convergence of all of these technologies and their appropriate use that will unlock the potential of all of the technologies. They are all better together.
Jenny: What advice would you give to a smart driven college student in the “real world”? What bad advice you heard should they ignore?
Jeff: The idea that cool companies are breezy and fun, people wear trendy beards and just hire smarter people is really a damaging false expectation. Things that are hard, are hard for everyone. The young trendy people are actually at least mid-thirties, and in larger companies, the people standing behind them are older than that. What is cool, is innovation, hard work, flexibility and team trust. From these things come to all other things.  Finally, don’t chase money because it just comes automatically to those that are high value. Becoming high value is what you should chase. Pursue knowledge with an insatiable curiosity. Interestingly enough, this is how we ended up in the 3D printing space. We were curious as to why we could not get our beautiful iNtuition 3D renderings into the printer. It required some research and a technology solution, which was a converter that takes our DICOM saved states made by radiologic technologists and converts them into the full volume, high-quality printable PC files. No STL files, whatsoever.  That’s cool!
Jenny: If you could have a giant billboard to promote a message to millions and even billions of people in our community (i.e. healthcare 3D printing and bio-fabrication), what message would that be?
Jeff: It’s easy! 3D printing does not have to be hard. We should not need 3D printing programs in technical colleges. There are already medical image segmentation and rendering tools available that far surpass what is being used. Radiologic technologists are trained in anatomy and the use of these tools. We seem to be stuck in a rut where industrial segmentation software tool uses STL files, loose clarity and resolution, are hard to use, are time intensive, and are not being rapidly adopted.  People are too expensive to have them spending hours and hours per print. Isn’t it interesting that we talk a lot about the fixed cost of printing, but keep propagating an impractical workflow? Using real medical-grade advance visualization tools and being willing to stay in the digital world when it makes sense, and to print in the material world when it makes sense, makes it all simpler, better and more affordable.
Jenny: What was/is the biggest risk you took in your career?
Jeff: I began my career at Philips Medical Systems as a field service engineer. It grew over time into a leadership development program and eventually a paid MBA. Everything was lining up to have a very long and prosperous career at Philips. Through a set of strange circumstances, I ran into my predecessor who used to hold my job. I met him only out of curiosity.  But, with him was another person whom I had heard of before at Philips and who was now working at the same company, Imatron. They successfully recruited me to this little super-fast CT scanner company that had a product that could image the heart when no other CT scanner could. I left the security behind, with my wife pregnant with our first child, and took a big risk that being a big part of a small company would allow me to learn faster than being a small part of a big company. While we had our challenges and it was not easy, the company was turned around and sold to another big company, GE Medical Systems. It was because of this risk that I took that I learned marketing, sales, product management, advanced image processing techniques, and began working with companies like my current employer, TeraRecon. The broader knowledge and cross-functional experience that I gained has defined my career, prepared me for my current role, and directed my career toward 3D image processing, including the 3D printing solutions that have brought me to become a part of 3DHeals.
Jenny: What is your favorite quote? Why?
Jeff: “None of us is as smart as all of us” 
― Kenneth H. Blanchard
People engage when they are heard and disengage when they are ignored. Solving big problems requires people and passion. Human beings want to contribute and add value. We take pride in our work and are honored when our work is recognized. The best way to ignite team collaboration and spawn new ideas is to make sure voices are heard and influences come from both inside and outside of the organization.
Jenny: What does the word “3DHEALS” mean to you? =)
Jeff: I think it means that 3D printing can help heal patients and that it belongs in the realm of primary diagnosis and treatment regimens. Because “printing” is not in the name, I also take it to mean that 3D “heals” this way, inclusive of holography, advanced visualization, AI image processing and any other forms of innovation. 

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Dr. Matheu co-founded Prellis Biologics in October 2016, with the mission to create fully vascularized human tissues and organs for transplantation. Her realization that the tiny blood vessels necessary for creating human organs could be replicated using the laser technology at the center of her PhD thesis work, led to development of the blended engineering and biology approach Prellis is using to solve the human organ shortage. Dr. Matheu is an expert in laser-based imaging of the immune system and developed Prellis’ platform technology. She brings her multi-disciplinary experience in specialized laser microscopy, cell biology, physiology, and biophysics to address the unsolved biomedical challenge of rapid 3D printing of large, vascularized tissues. Dr. Matheu will be a speaker at the #3DHEALS2018 conference on April 20-21st, 2018.
Jenny: When was the first encounter you had with 3D printing? What was that experience like? What were you thinking at that moment?
Melanie: I first encountered 3D printing in a research lab when I was still in academia. I was fascinated by the freedom of iteration and development 3D printing provided.  I immediately started thinking about the implications for healthcare and medicine.
Jenny: What inspired you to start your journey in 3D printing (bio-fabrication/bio-printing)?
Melanie: When I was doing research at UCSF I was driving home from the lab one night and listening to a podcast on organ development for transplantation. The surgeon being interviewed identified a singular problem standing between scientists and physicians and a truly living engineered organ. Once I heard it, it seemed simple; develop microvasculature. I couldn’t shake the idea that all we had to do was find a way to create microvasculature quickly and we could save millions of lives. At its core, this is an engineering problem, but one that typically only people with a solid footing in the cell biology world would be excited about solving. I had solid exposure to both sides of the problem and I began to look for and thinking about possible solutions.
Jenny: Who inspired you the most along this journey in 3D printing (bio-printing/bio-fabrication)? This can be a mentor, a patient, a celebrity, anyone basically. You can name more than one as well.
Melanie: I’ve had a number of incredible mentors, one that was particularly important in guiding my scientific career was my Ph.D. mentor Mike Cahalan, Ph.D. of UC Irvine. Mike is a careful, thoughtful, and thorough scientist, who took incredibly ‘what if’ and ‘let’s try and see’ moments, and turned them into elegant research, advancing the field of immunology in phenomenal ways. Thanks to Mike’s work we understand that immune cell activity is controlled by ion channels and that immune cells are highly motile in all tissues throughout the body, nd critical for immune system function. He’s also a genuinely great person who has always given meaningful advice.
Jenny: What motivates you the most for your work?
Melanie: I love solving challenging problems, it’s a privilege to have the chance to work on a well-defined problem that has the potential to impact the lives of millions in a positive way.
Jenny: What is/are the biggest obstacle(s) in your line of work? If you have conquered them, what were your solutions?
Melanie: Communicating a cross-disciplinary solution in a way that makes sense to a broad audience is always a challenge. We’ve found it often works best to explain the exciting potential of the solution, the magnitude of the problem, and then give some real-world physical examples.
Jenny: What do you think is (are) the biggest challenge(s) in 3D Printing/bio-printing? What do you think the potential solution(s) is (are)?
Melanie: Some of the largest challenges facing 3D printing are standardization and quality control testing. We’ve placed amazing tools in the hands of very smart people, but making sure there is medical grade consistency across the board will allow for the field to move from one-off production into the realm of true medical solutions.
Jenny: If you are granted three wishes by a higher being, what would they be?
Melanie:
Great question!
I have a love of promoting education and I think I would start there.
I’d wish for improved general education in the sciences.
More coursework addressing cross-disciplinary interaction in the sciences, especially in solving difficult problems. I think this is where great solutions are often found.
Jenny: What advice would you give to a smart driven college student in the “real world”? What bad advice you heard should they ignore?
Melanie: Make sure to remember that you can choose which advice is meaningful to you. I tend to pay attention to the advice of people I respect when it resonates with my inner passion and drive. Therefore my advice is to find your inner passion and drive first and then everything else will align.
For better or worse I’m also the type of person who tends to hear the words ‘can’t’ ‘won’t’ ‘don’t’ and ‘impossible’ as interesting challenges. So I typically didn’t give much credence to negative advice.
Jenny: If you could have a giant billboard to promote a message to millions and even billions of people in our community (i.e. healthcare 3D printing and bio-fabrication), what message would that be?
Melanie: Dream about how to achieve the impossible, make it possible, then doing the impossible becomes easy.
Jenny: What were/was the best investment you made in 3D printing/bio-printing/bio-fabrication?
Melanie: Our company is building a novel type of 3D printer, it is laser-based and ultra-fast. My greatest investment personally was boot-strapping the founding of this company and the filing of the patents. It was a leap of faith, I checked all of the physics and then took the leap. Seeing the system print as we expected it too for the first time was breathtaking. After that our investors and I have developed this out into its third generation, a system that is printing biological materials faster than any other known technology.
Jenny: What was/is the biggest risk you took in your career?
Melanie: When I left academia, I had just been awarded a transitional grant, I left a fully funded position and a bright academic future to start over in biotech and learn something new.
Jenny: What do you enjoy in your spare time? What are you passionate about outside of your work/3d printing?
Melanie: I love long distance running. I’m also a very visual person so I still work on making art occasionally.
Jenny: What is your favorite quote? Why?
Melanie: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
– Arthur C. Clarke
This is one of my favorite quotations because I believe we too often accept the boundary of other’s knowledge as truth. As a scientist, I believe it is our responsibility to continue to ask questions and explore possibilities around the edges of knowledge.
It is only by following your deepest instinct that you can lead a rich life, and if you let your fear of consequence prevent you from following your deepest instinct, then your life will be safe, expedient and thin.
-Katharine Butler Hathaway
This quote always reminds me that it is more often the lack of action we regret than taking action or exploring something new.
An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.
-G. K. Chesterton
I always refer to this quote when the unexpected occurs.
Jenny: What does the word “3DHEALS” mean to you? =)
Melanie: 3DHEALS, to me, describes, a new world of possibilities at the intersect of engineering and medicine.

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