The Minnesota pelvic trainer: a hybrid VR/physical pelvis for providing virtual mentorship.

Obtaining accurate understanding of three dimensional structures and their relationships is important in learning human anatomy. To leverage the learning advantages of using both physical and virtual models, we built a hybrid platform consisting of virtual and mannequin pelvis, motion tracking interface, anatomy and pathology knowledge base. The virtual mentorship concept is to allow learners to conveniently manipulate and explore the virtual pelvic structures through the mannequin model and VR interface, and practice on anatomy identification tasks and pathology quizzes more intuitively and interactively than in a traditional self-study classroom, and to reduce the demands of access to dissection lab or wet lab.