Two dimensional imaging, such as the standard cat scan (CT scan) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been around since 1972.  It was invented by British engineer Godfrey Hounsfield of EMI Laboratories, England, and independently by South African born physicist Allan Cormack of Tufts University, Massachusetts.  Since that time, although the resolution of the images have improved, it remains relatively the same technology.  Doctors continue to use the "slices" shown on 2 dimensional CT scans  to educate medical students, surgical residents, and even patients.  As the images are in 2D, it can be quite disorienting even to medical residents, let alone patients who are trying to learn about their own pathology.  As such, we are making push to bring 3D technology into the main stream.