The Anatatorium:
A stereoscopic threedimensional laboratory
experience
Natatorium: Greek origins as a place
for swimming.
Timothy D. Wilson PhD
Yang Ding
Angela M Vandenbogaard
Nicholas Greven
Peter Haase PhD
Marjorie Johnson PhD
Anatatorium: Wilsonian origins as a
place for anatomical experiences.
Is Our Anatomy Evolving?
Anatomy Students are Evolving
• gross
anatomy isn’t just for medicine anymore
• health science students
• kinesiologists
• nurses
• physiotherapists
• occupational therapists
• communicative disorders clinicians
• anthropologists
• engineers
• plethora of others?
Conundrum?
• The hours spent in the gross anatomy lab is decreasing
– Estimates of ~1000 hrs in 1950 to ~100 hrs today
• There is surge in retirement of gross anatomists without
replacement
(McCuskey, Acad Med. ‘05)
– What will this do to a dwindling lab component?
• 57% of residency directors report their residents need a
refresher course as 14% are seriously deficient (Cottam, Clin Anat ‘99)
• The three-dimensional aspects of learning anatomy require
time for validation and reconstruction; can encompass 8
different intelligences.
(Marks, Clin Anat ‘00)
• Increasing numbers of students require basic anatomical
education for their chosen professions but costs (time,
infrastructure, dwindling personnel) cannot offer a ‘classical’
anatomical experience.
Student Numbers are Increasing
Health Science students
Kinesiology
Nursing
CSD
~ 500-800 students over the fall/winter terms
- all profit from gross anatomy labs
Anatomy Teaching is Evolving
-number of
cadavers
required is
unsustainable.
We would
need ~150 per
year.
Brief History of Image
and Anatomy
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce.
View from the Window at Le Gras.
ca1826.
Charles Wheatstone ca 1838
David Basset, 1954
Walt Disney et al. ca 1950
A new approach for new labs?
• Using DICOM format data
• segmentation allows anatomical structures to be
extracted, coloured, or highlighted at will.
• with quality scans, fine details are revealed (<mm)
A new approach for new labs?
Where’s the D?
We amiably call our virtual model
Frankendavre, many people, many parts
and…IT’S ALIVE, ALIVE!
Data to follow
Projects of Anatatorium Efficacy
• will ‘Frankendavre’ experiences accelerate
&/or consolidate learning in the gross lab
along with plastic modeling already in use?
• will this virtual model enhance learning, and
retention in undergrad students, meds, dents,
professional schools, residents?
• will the Anatatorium be an important adjunct
to dissection in the future?
• can it start to fill the void and attract future
anatomists and new research directions?
Acknowledgements
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Big thanks to NWA for
not accepting my bag!
ITRC - Instructional Technology
Resource Centre
Christie Digital of Canada
The students and TAs who have worked hard to
figure this software out and use it in their labs.
Terry Peters, Robarts Research Institute, UWO
for the use of his portable
stereoscopic projector.
Thank You for your attention!
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The Future is Coming
Where we go with
it is up to you!