Medical informatics experts want to bring the digital revolution to studying human anatomy.
The BioDigital Human is a three-dimensional, fully-interactive visualization program. While it won’t completely replace old-fashioned dissection, its users can explore a human body in ways not possible with a cadaver, much less a medical atlas.
With traditional anatomy atlases, “you’re at the mercy of what they’ve created for you. Here, you can manipulate it yourself,” said New York University anatomy instructor Victoria Harnik, who helped design the BioDigital Human.
Unlike cadavers, the digital body can be explored again and again. Real dissections are one-shot deals.
BioDigital tissues and organs are also labeled so users can see how they connect to other parts of the body. The zoomable, rotatable computer-animated human is also linked to educational resources, likeMEDLINE, that have information about medical conditions associated with their object of interest.
Ultimately the program could be used by patients to better understand their bodies, and also as a promotional tool for generating interest in science-related careers, said BioDigital Human developers Mark Triola and Jonathan Qualter, who presented the project April 11 at the TEDMED conference in Washington, D.C.
At New York University’s Langone Medical Center, where Triola heads the medical informatics department, this year’s first-year medical students were the first to use digital cadaver in a classroom.
Some of the features Qualter showcased at the conference — like pathology visualization and detail at the level of individual blood vessels — haven’t yet been implemented, but Harnik said the students’ pilot version is still useful. The model, which students visualize using 3-D glasses, is projected on a screen in a room adjacent to NYU’s anatomy lab. Students can explore it without fear of making a dissection-ruining mistake.
A BioDigital Human screenshot. Image: BioDigital Systems
BioDigital Human is “especially useful for people like me who are three-dimensionally challenged,” Harnik said.
As with most contemporary digital tools, users can share their virtual exams with friends through social media platforms, potentially extending collaborative environments beyond the classroom.
But Nazir Savji, a first-year medical student at NYU, said he still prefers studying from an atlas which has pictures that “are a bit more vivid.”
“There’s no substitute for looking at a body,” Savji added.
Barry Botterman, anatomy course director at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, shared similar sentiments. ”As a reference, it’s okay. It’s fine. I’m not sure how I would incorporate it into our curriculum beyond that,” Botterman said. “I don’t see how it would improve dramatically how students do the dissection.”
While BioDigital’s system helps students understand how organ systems interact, its 3D renderings look “a little cartoonish” to Botterman and compare unfavorably to better-rendered atlas illustrations. While impressive, it’s still quite different from what you would see in a body, he says.
However, Botterman said the BioDigital Human is better than competing products like Anatomy TV andBodyMaps, which is conceptually similar but less detailed and user-friendly. Botterman used Anatomy TV as a supplement in his course, but not during anatomy lab. It earned mixed reviews among his students.
Cost may also be prohibitive. Because of NYU’s connections to the developers, the school gets the program on the cheap, and BioDigital Systems — the medical visualization company founded by Qualter – has pledged a small portion of its revenues to the school in return for its help piloting the technology. Other schools may not be so fortunate.
Video: TEDMED 2012.
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