Med School Goes Web 2.0 With Virtual Cadavers

Here at Profy we get thousands of news items and web 2.0 application announcements and updates a day across our desks, and sometimes it takes something unique or exciting to catch our attention. Virtual cadavers on Halloween definitely fit that bill.  It seems that universities across the United States are taking advantage of technological advances to give their students a complete medical experience in a virtual format.

A company called A.D.A.M . has created interactive software that is now required for many med school students, called A.D.A.M. Interactive Anatomy and Interactive Physiology software.  Having this software is the technological equivalent of carrying a fresh cadaver around in your backpack all day to learn on, without the more gruesome aspects of anatomy class.

Sure, it is important for medical students to eventually work with the real thing and not a computer simulation, no matter how realistic it may be. As it turns out, cadavers are surprisingly difficult to come by, and easy to destroy while learning.  It seems the popularity of donating your body to science has waned over the years, and legal problems can often prohibit using undonated cadavers from other sources.

Enter A.D.A.M. and the virtual, interactive cadaver you can carry around in your laptop. The A.D.A.M. learning system gives students a chance to practice the detail and care required in working with cadavers to learn, without any of the chance for damage or mistakes inherent in actual cadaver work.  Later on, the students can use a real cadaver to develop their technique, but cutting out the risk in early learning saves both time and money, and makes for more accurate study, as noted by one lab supervisor:

“The exquisite level of detail is unsurpassed. I am especially appreciative of the ability of A.D.A.M.’s software to show structures, such as the median and lateral pectoral nerves, that are easily destroyed on a cadaver. It is a great reinforcement for what we do in the labs,” said Leslie Hendon, MA Ed, Instructional Laboratory Supervisor with the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Does the interactive software experience replace actual hands on learning? Absolutely not. But it offers a huge step in how learning can happen, creating a virtual lab that isn’t dependent on time or classroom, enhancing the college experience and creating better medical professionals in the long run that are more comfortable applying technology to practices in the future. In fact, the more technology and medicine combine, and the more students are comfortable with the changing face of health care, the more chances innovations like Internet based health care have to actually work.

Would you trust that virtual learning combined with hand on experience could create the doctors and surgeons of tomorrow? I would. I think technology can break medicine out into the next century if it is used correctly and wisely. I see our health care and our technology being intertwined in a time not far away, and learning software like this is just the first step in a long road.