Eastern Hospital has introduced its latest 3D printed model of newborn babies' lungs to help doctors practise surgical intervention to treat pneumothorax, a condition when air accumulates in the pleural cavity which can collapse the lung and cause problems with heartbeat and breathing, in some cases becoming fatal.

The hospital says it has been working on these models using artificial intelligence along with the data of real patients including those from Computed Tomography (CT) scans.

To make the models' texture more similar to real human skin and tissue, the research team also used data from pigs and chickens to help build the models.

The hospital hopes the new 3D models will help doctors treat pneumothorax cases.

Surgical intervention needs to be done promptly and swiftly especially for newborn babies whose conditions may deteriorate quickly.

Consultant for Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine Dr Victor Chan explained that since the condition requires swift intervention, doctors need to be familiar with the procedure and have ample practice.

"This is a very complicated procedure, we need to follow the steps very meticulously, we can't risk the patient because of some inexperience or wrong steps. Therefore we need very good training on the doctors before we allow them to perform the procedure on a real patient," he explained.

Since the condition is not common, it can be hard for doctors to get hands-on experience.

"So that's why a simulation training, particularly on a nicely and beautifully made model, would be important," he added.