The Virtual Cadaver Lab: An Innovative Platform to Supplement Medical Education

描述(申请人提供)：身体解剖是医学教育中的一项重要练习。除了参与身体解剖的60,000多名医学生外，还有数十万其他医疗保健专业人员和数百万高中生将从身体解剖提供的探索性学习体验中受益。然而，每年只有17,500具身体可用，伦理和安全问题阻止了解剖学中如此广泛的使用，否则这将是一次宝贵的教育经验。在过去的十年里，在游戏行业的推动下，个人电脑取得了令人瞩目的成绩里程碑。现在有机会开发一种虚拟现实解剖探索模拟器，它以负担得起的成本结合了虚拟手术和多媒体的最佳效果，并将这种宝贵的体验带给了大众。这份提案描述了虚拟身体实验室，这是一个3D、实时、交互式的探索性应用程序，允许学生像医学生探索物理身体一样探索人体解剖学。与实物身体相比，VR具有明显的优势，例如消除错误的能力，探索多个标本的能力，记录和回放用于评估的解剖结构的能力，以及利用组织和器官特定信息增强体验的能力。在虚拟身体实验室的模拟中，学生将能够从任何角度观察人体，用虚拟探头触摸它，并切开皮肤进行探索。组织和器官甚至可以在解剖活动中被激活以移动。提出了一种适用于Microsoft Surface等多点触控界面的低成本触摸式输入设备和界面。这项拟议的研究不仅对医学生，而且对K-12和本科生的生物学学生都有巨大的影响。医学生可以在多具身体上练习，作为他们实验室经验的补充，而不需要出现在身体实验室，也没有监管或道德问题。其他理科学生可以通过在学校的计算机实验室或他们的家庭计算机上运行该软件来获得对人体解剖学的宝贵见解。在第一阶段，我们展示了这样一个软件的可行性，受到了学生和解剖学教授的好评。在第二阶段，我们将把这个原型转化为高质量、全功能的商业软件包。该软件将在5所全国领先的医学院进行评估和Beta测试。 公共卫生相关性：除了参与身体解剖的60,000多名医科学生外，还有数十万其他医疗保健专业人员和数百万高中生将从身体解剖中受益。然而，每年只有17,500具身体可供使用，伦理和安全问题阻止了这种广泛使用，否则这将是一次宝贵的解剖学教育经验。购买实物标本和购买补充材料的需求日益增长，构成了一个重大的公共卫生问题。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cadaver dissection is a critical exercise in medical education. In addition to the 60,000 plus medical students who participate in cadaver dissection, there are hundreds of thousands of other health care professionals and millions of high school students who would benefit from the exploratory learning experience that cadaver dissection provides. However, only 17,500 cadavers are available annually, and ethical and safety issues prevent such widespread use of what would otherwise be an invaluable educational experience in Anatomy. Over the past decade, personal computers have achieved remarkable performance milestones, driven by the gaming industry. An opportunity exists to develop a Virtual Reality anatomical exploration simulator that combines the best of virtual surgery and multimedia at an affordable cost and brings this invaluable experience to the masses. This proposal describes the Virtual Cadaver Lab, a 3D, real time, interactive exploratory application that allows students to explore the human anatomy the same way that medical students explore physical cadavers. VR offers distinct advantages over physical cadavers, such as the ability to erase mistakes, the ability to explore multiple specimens, the ability to record and playback dissections for assessment, and the ability to augment the experience with tissue and organ specific information. In the Virtual Cadaver Lab simulation, a student will be able to view a human body from any angle, touch it with a virtual probe, and cut open the skin for exploration. Tissues and organs can even be activated to move during their dissection activities. A low cost touch based input device and interface for multi-touch surfaces, such as Microsoft Surface, is proposed. The proposed research has tremendous implications, not only for medical students, but for biology students at the K-12 and undergraduate levels. Medical students can practice on multiple cadavers as a supplement to their lab experience without the need to be present in a cadaver lab, and without regulatory or ethical issues. Other science students can gain valuable insight into the human anatomy by running the software in a schools computer lab or on their home computer. In Phase 1, we showed the feasibility of such a software which was well received by students as well as anatomy professors. In Phase 2, we will convert this prototype into a high-quality, fully functional commercial software package. The software will be evaluated and beta tested in 5 of the nation's leading medical schools. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: In addition to the 60,000 plus medical students who participate in cadaver dissection, there are hundreds of thousands of other health care professionals and millions of high school students who would benefit from cadaver dissection. However, only 17,500 cadavers are available annually, and ethical and safety issues prevent such widespread use of what would otherwise be an invaluable educational experience in anatomy. The growing demand to purchase physical specimens and to purchase supplemental materials constitutes a major public health issue.