Virtual Anatomy Table - How to Use the Best One for Your Needs

The great thing about the Atlas AR feature is that it can be used at your desk, home or in the library in the lab, at school, at the library or in your Dorm Room.

Norbert von der Groeben, student in a bioengineering class, who learns human anatomy under the guidance of a cadaver. The contrast between the user experience of the Anatomage Table and course material shows that the Anatomage Table provides some sort of "cadaver substitute" without the need for a textbook, and that course material can replace the textbook, serve as learning tools and improve traditional cadaver and dissection laboratory experiences. Faculties are experimenting with how the table can be used as a possible teaching aid for anatomy students, medical students, residents, and even patients.

Founded in 2015, Life Universities Virtual Anatomy Lab enables students to study anatomy with a state-of-the-art digital anatomy tablet and carcass. Life University's Virtual Anatomical Lab has more anatomical data and tables than any other university in the world.

Matthew Kilbride, teaching technology and simulation specialist, demonstrates the new Anatomage Table available on the Blue Bell Pottstown campus. The Anatomages Table is a 3-D, life-size, interactive anatomy tool integrated into some of the most prestigious medical institutions around the world, including the University of Nebraska Medical Center. It offers health science students a new opportunity to study anatomy and physiology.

Health science students at Montgomery County Community College will use a new, ground-breaking technology to study human anatomy and physiology this fall. Last spring, the college acquired two anatomical tables that students and faculty can integrate into their courses of study.

Louisiana Tech students in all health sciences fields will benefit from an unprecedented collaboration of learning that begins this fall with the opening of the Justin-Jeanette Hinckley Virtual Anatomy Lab at Carson-Taylor Hall. At the heart of the laboratory is the Anatomage Table, the most advanced 3D visualization and virtual dissection tool ever developed for anatomy and physiology classes. The anatomage table works in tabular form and combines radiology software with clinical content to provide students the chance to learn all levels of the section and examine the body from the individual cell level upwards.

This interactive approach allows students to dissect, explore and visualize anatomy in 3D, whether they are in a cadaver or in a laboratory. Students use the machine to retreat and explore every layer of the replica body, starting with the skin, muscles, circulation and central nervous system. Students have access to more than 1,600 MRI and CT scans of human and animal development and injury. More can be downloaded and made available as the technology evolves and grows.

The spreadsheet software allows you to publish the MRI scan on a straight board or canvas, giving students the opportunity to scroll through the images in the axial, coronal and sagittal planes. The table can also be used in person so that students can learn from the instructors who teach with it.

The more you play with the anatomical models as a teacher, the more creative you and your students become. Students can dissect virtual corpses and make cuts only with their fingers and touch screens. As soon as the students sit on the anatomy table, they can use the screenshot function to capture their images on the table or create a PowerPoint or Word document that they can hand over to you.

Like a real cadaver, virtual cadavers offer students the ability to navigate with ease the body and see organ systems and views that would be impossible with real humans, said John R. Harrison, Ph.D. Director of the UConn Virtual Human Anatomy Lab. Using the virtual body, students can, for example, cut a slice into the chest to allow them a so-called long-axis parasternal view of the heart, Harrison says. With a virtual dissection table, students are limited in their time to work by hand, but when the program needs to be shared, the BodyViz software provides each student with its own dissection platform.

This approach gives students more time to study real anatomy. In addition, the BodyViz software can be downloaded to a student or faculty computer, reducing the mortuary laboratories for students who can take it with them on the go to zero. This lab is an incredible learning tool and I am envious of the students who will use it in the coming year.

The anatomage table is expensive for institutions and starts at $38k, but it is cheaper in the long run than using a carcass. It should be noted that anatomages are intended to be used with traditional textbooks and laboratory manuals that can cost students more than $100. The beauty of this table is that it can be used in the laboratory every semester, year after year. So the price is high, but it is a one-off deal.

The motivation to acquire the anatomage virtual anatomy and dissection table came from medical examiner Joshua Stephany, M.D. Who saw it while filming a television pilot for NBC Universal in Tennessee.

The first student to work on the table was a new student in an anatomical biotechnology course taught by Srivastava. The traditional dissection laboratory was filled with rows of medical students and carcasses covered with a blue tarp. Two dissection tables were uncovered, and a human arm was on display during the day-long session.

When the course was over, they turned to the room next door to view a 3-D image of the shoulder and chest of the world-famous Bassett collection of human sectionation.

Carcasses and three-dimensional anatomical models on the virtual dissection table that Bowler and her Stanford classmates will test for the first time this spring. The Virtual Anatomy Table features a life-size model of the human body that can be manipulated via a touchscreen interface. Students can zoom in and out, rotate different structures and remove individual organs.

Methods and case studies were used to compare the exam results of a student who had completed a dissection using the virtual anatomy dissection table with her 25 member cohort who had completed their dissection without cadaver. During the laboratory section of the course, students in the cohort who tested using the anatomical table performed on average 3.7 percentage points better than those who tested without a model and 9 percentage points faster than those who tested with a carcass.