With the development of medical imaging, its processing and analysis techniques becomes more and more advanced and mature. However, the segmentation of medical image is still a great challenge. In this paper, the recent progress of medical imaging and the characteristics of the recent medical image segmentation techniques were discussed: emphasis on the effective integration of multiple segmentation algorithms. Active shape model (ASM), graph cut (GC) and iterative graph-cut active shape model (IGCASM) methods were used as examples to further illustrate the characteristics of medical image segmentation.