Medical Illustration in the Era of Cardiac Surgery.

This article reviews the collaboration between clinician and illustrator throughout the ages while highlighting the era of cardiac surgery. Historical notes are based on Professor Sanjib Kumar Ghosh's extensive review, literature searches, and the archives of the Johns Hopkins University Department of Art as related to Medicine in Baltimore. Personal communications were explored with medical illustrators and medical practitioners, many of whom are colleagues and trainees, to further chronicle the history of medical illustration and education in the era of cardiac surgery. Medical illustrators use their talents and expressive ideas to demonstrate procedures and give them life. These methods are (1) hovering technique; (2) hidden anatomy, ghosted views, or transparency; (3) centrally focused perspective; (4) action techniques to give life to the procedure; (5) use of insets to highlight one part of the drawing; (6) human proportionality using hands or known objects to show size; and (7) step-by-step educational process to depict the stages of a procedure. Vivid examples showing these techniques are demonstrated. The result of this observational analysis underscores the importance of the collaboration between clinician and illustrator to accurately describe intricate pathoanatomy, three-dimensional interrelated anatomic detail, and complex operations. While there are few data to measure the impact of the atlas on medical education, it is an undeniable assertion that anatomical and surgical illustrations have helped to educate and train the modern-day surgeon, cardiologist, and related health-care professionals.

The MAVID heart holder: a demonstration device to anchor cadaver hearts for surgical simulation and practical education.

Performing open heart surgery involves learning challenging techniques and a need for realistic training models to achieve and maintain a high level of surgical skills. The MAVID heart holder is an organ holder primarily designed to hold the heart in its anatomic position for the purpose of surgical simulation and education, thereby closing the gap between surgical performance in the laboratory and in the operating room. The device is simple to use, can be adjusted to organ size, and has the necessary instrumentation to be used with any solid organ. The MAVID heart holder also provides a platform for presentation and assists in advancing the research sphere. The advantage over other existing models is that the MAVID heart holder uses real tissue and does not distort the organ at the attachment sites. Further, it offers superior stability as well as the ability to manipulate the organ during presentation and dissection. Training with the MAVID heart holder has the potential to shorten training time to acquire surgical skills and proficiency before performing these techniques in the operating room and in so doing enhance patient safety.