An Overview of Traditional and Advanced Visualization Techniques Applied to Anatomical Instruction Involving Cadaveric Dissection.

This work provides an overview of the role, basic concepts, significance, and instructional contributions of current and evolving digital visualization technologies being applied in first-year anatomy curricula. These are visualization methods that have been and are being used to support both basic science and clinical applications of gross anatomical teaching and learning to the health professions (i.e., medical, dental, physical therapy, chiropractic and nursing students). It first presents a foundation as to how this discipline has been and is being taught within the professional school environment using visualization and illustration: aspects of learning, the format of the first-year anatomy curriculum, the nature of the visual information network in support of educational excellence and newer opportunities afforded by advanced technologies placing the student at the center of the learning experience. Then, the nature of each of these new methods is presented with their individual unique characteristics, and the results that anatomy faculty running cadaveric dissection courses had with the evaluation of the new technologies.The Conclusion section lists key points found in the literature as reported. Finally, the Future Work section proposes investigations into standardizing the presentation and assessment of anatomical concepts using prominent in situ structures of viscera, their enclosures and resident compartments for more precise and reproducible measurement of then instructional effectiveness of the new techniques.

Evaluation of monoscopic and stereoscopic displays for visual-spatial tasks in medical contexts.

In the medical field, digital images are present in diagnosis, pre-operative planning, minimally invasive surgery, instruction, and training. The use of medical digital imaging has afforded new ways to interact with a patient, such as seeing fine details inside a body. This increased usage also raises many basic research questions on human perception and performance when utilizing these images. The work presented here attempts to answer the question: How would adding the stereopsis depth cue affect relative position tasks in a medical context compared to a monoscopic view? By designing and conducting a study to isolate the benefits between monoscopic 3D and stereoscopic 3D displays in a relative position task, the following hypothesis was tested: stereoscopic 3D displays are beneficial over monoscopic 3D displays for relative position judgment tasks in a medical visualization setting. 44 medical students completed a series of relative position judgments tasks. The results show that stereoscopic condition yielded a higher score than the monoscopic condition with regard to the hypothesis.

Evaluating mental workload of two-dimensional and three-dimensional visualization for anatomical structure localization.

Visualization of medical data in three-dimensional (3D) or two-dimensional (2D) views is a complex area of research. In many fields 3D views are used to understand the shape of an object, and 2D views are used to understand spatial relationships. It is unclear how 2D/3D views play a role in the medical field. Using 3D views can potentially decrease the learning curve experienced with traditional 2D views by providing a whole representation of the patient's anatomy. However, there are challenges with 3D views compared with 2D. This current study expands on a previous study to evaluate the mental workload associated with both 2D and 3D views. Twenty-five first-year medical students were asked to localize three anatomical structures--gallbladder, celiac trunk, and superior mesenteric artery--in either 2D or 3D environments. Accuracy and time were taken as the objective measures for mental workload. The NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) was used as a subjective measure for mental workload. Results showed that participants viewing in 3D had higher localization accuracy and a lower subjective measure of mental workload, specifically, the mental demand component of the NASA-TLX. Results from this study may prove useful for designing curricula in anatomy education and improving training procedures for surgeons.

Coupled physical and digital cadaver dissection followed by a visual test protocol provides insights into the nature of anatomical knowledge and its evaluation.

This research effort compared and contrasted two conceptually different methods for the exploration of human anatomy in the first-year dissection laboratory by accomplished students: "physical" dissection using an embalmed cadaver and "digital" dissection using three-dimensional volume modeling of whole-body CT and MRI image sets acquired using the same cadaver. The goal was to understand the relative contributions each method makes toward student acquisition of intuitive sense of practical anatomical knowledge gained during "hands-on" structural exploration tasks. The main instruments for measuring anatomical knowledge under this conceptual model were questions generated using a classification system designed to assess both visual presentation manner and the corresponding response information required. Students were randomly divided into groups based on exploration method (physical or digital dissection) and then anatomical region. The physical dissectors proceeded with their direct methods, whereas the digital dissectors generated and manipulated indirect 3D digital models. After 6 weeks, corresponding student anatomical assignment teams compared their results using photography and animated digital visualizations. Finally, to see whether each method provided unique advantages, a visual test protocol of new visualizations based on the classification schema was administered. Results indicated that all students, regardless of gender, dissection method, and anatomical region dissected performed significantly better on questions presented as rotating models requiring spatial ordering or viewpoint determination responses in contrast to requests for specific lexical feature identifications. Additional results provided evidence of trends showing significant differences in gender and dissection method scores. These trends will be explored with further trials with larger populations.