SBIR Phase I: Anatomy Reimagined in an Educational Tool with Gaming and 3D Models

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响将导致学习人体解剖学的新教育软件。该软件每年将为美国54000名学习解剖学的医疗保健专业学生以及45万名本科生提供服务。解剖学是医学教育的基石，身体解剖是教学的金标准。然而，许多学生在他们的学术经历中接触到身体的机会有限，甚至没有。人体解剖学的学习资源(教科书、模型、应用程序)通常是彩色编码的计算机生成的图像，没有身体的复杂性和外观。这些学习材料与解剖的标本不匹配，使知识转移变得更加困难。为了克服这些挑战，拟议的软件将把数字身体模型与引人入胜的教育游戏策略结合起来。该软件将把高质量的解剖学教育带到美国和国外的低资源环境中。拟议的项目将结合教育心理学和学习科学的原理，为医疗保健专业学生(如医疗、物理治疗、牙科、医生助理)开发一个学习人体解剖学的游戏平台。这些游戏将建立在一个虚拟的人体解剖图集上，该图集由解剖的人体身体的高分辨率图像创建。对于这个可行性证明项目，我们将重点放在人类的心脏上。该项目的技术障碍包括将学习原理融入游戏，将解剖图像转换为可以在iPad和智能手机等设备上运行的软件包，同时保持分辨率和可用性。在这个项目中，我们将捕捉人类心脏的图像，将它们转移到适当的软件开发平台，然后在迭代过程中添加教育功能和游戏。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will lead to new educational software for learning human anatomy. The software will serve 54,000 healthcare professional students studying anatomy each year in the U.S., as well as 450,000 undergraduate students. Anatomy is the cornerstone of medical education with cadaver dissection serving as the gold standard teaching method. However, many students have limited or no access to cadavers during their academic experience. Learning resources in human anatomy (textbooks, models, apps) are generally color-coded, computer-generated images that lack the complexities and appearance of cadavers. These learning materials do not match dissected specimens, making knowledge transfer more difficult. To overcome these challenges, the proposed software will marry digital cadaveric models with captivating educational gaming strategies. The software will bring high-quality anatomy education to low resource settings in the U.S. and abroad.The proposed project will incorporate principles of educational psychology and learning science to develop a gaming platform for healthcare professional students (e.g. medical, physical therapy, dental, physician assistant) to learn human anatomy. The games will be built on a virtual atlas of human anatomy created from high-resolution images of dissected human cadavers. For this proof-of-feasibility project, we will focus on the human heart. Technical hurdles to this project include incorporating learning principles into the games and converting anatomy images into a software package that can run on devices, such as iPads and smartphones, while maintaining resolution and usability features. During this project, we will capture images of the human heart, transfer them into the appropriate software development platform, and then add education features and games in an iterative process.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.