From chalkboard, slides, and paper to e-learning: How computing technologies have transformed anatomical sciences education.

Until the late-twentieth century, primary anatomical sciences education was relatively unenhanced by advanced technology and dependent on the mainstays of printed textbooks, chalkboard- and photographic projection-based classroom lectures, and cadaver dissection laboratories. But over the past three decades, diffusion of innovations in computer technology transformed the practices of anatomical education and research, along with other aspects of work and daily life. Increasing adoption of first-generation personal computers (PCs) in the 1980s paved the way for the first practical educational applications, and visionary anatomists foresaw the usefulness of computers for teaching. While early computers lacked high-resolution graphics capabilities and interactive user interfaces, applications with video discs demonstrated the practicality of programming digital multimedia linking descriptive text with anatomical imaging. Desktop publishing established that computers could be used for producing enhanced lecture notes, and commercial presentation software made it possible to give lectures using anatomical and medical imaging, as well as animations. Concurrently, computer processing supported the deployment of medical imaging modalities, including computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasound, that were subsequently integrated into anatomy instruction. Following its public birth in the mid-1990s, the World Wide Web became the ubiquitous multimedia networking technology underlying the conduct of contemporary education and research. Digital video, structural simulations, and mobile devices have been more recently applied to education. Progressive implementation of computer-based learning methods interacted with waves of ongoing curricular change, and such technologies have been deemed crucial for continuing medical education reforms, providing new challenges and opportunities for anatomical sciences educators. Anat Sci Educ 9: 583-602. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.

Transforming clinical imaging and 3D data for virtual reality learning objects: HTML5 and mobile devices implementation.

Web deployable anatomical simulations or "virtual reality learning objects" can easily be produced with QuickTime VR software, but their use for online and mobile learning is being limited by the declining support for web browser plug-ins for personal computers and unavailability on popular mobile devices like Apple iPad and Android tablets. This article describes complementary methods for creating comparable, multiplatform VR learning objects in the new HTML5 standard format, circumventing platform-specific limitations imposed by the QuickTime VR multimedia file format. Multiple types or "dimensions" of anatomical information can be embedded in such learning objects, supporting different kinds of online learning applications, including interactive atlases, examination questions, and complex, multi-structure presentations. Such HTML5 VR learning objects are usable on new mobile devices that do not support QuickTime VR, as well as on personal computers. Furthermore, HTML5 VR learning objects can be embedded in "ebook" document files, supporting the development of new types of electronic textbooks on mobile devices that are increasingly popular and self-adopted for mobile learning.

Diffusion of innovations: smartphones and wireless anatomy learning resources.

The author has previously reported on principles of diffusion of innovations, the processes by which new technologies become popularly adopted, specifically in relation to anatomy and education. In presentations on adopting handheld computers [personal digital assistants (PDAs)] and personal media players for health sciences education, particular attention has been directed to the anticipated integration of PDA functions into popular cellular telephones. However, limited distribution of early "smartphones" (e.g., Palm Treo and Blackberry) has provided few potential users for anatomical learning resources. In contrast, iPod media players have been self-adopted by millions of students, and "podcasting" has become a popular medium for distributing educational media content. The recently introduced Apple iPhone has combined smartphone and higher resolution media player capabilities. The author successfully tested the iPhone and the "work alike" iPod touch wireless media player with text-based "flashcard" resources, existing PDF educational documents, 3D clinical imaging data, lecture "podcasts," and clinical procedure video. These touch-interfaced, mobile computing devices represent just the first of a new generation providing practical, scalable wireless Web access with enhanced multimedia capabilities. With widespread student self-adoption of such new personal technology, educators can look forward to increasing portability of well-designed, multiplatform "learn anywhere" resources.

Transforming clinical imaging data for virtual reality learning objects.

Advances in anatomical informatics, three-dimensional (3D) modeling, and virtual reality (VR) methods have made computer-based structural visualization a practical tool for education. In this article, the authors describe streamlined methods for producing VR "learning objects," standardized interactive software modules for anatomical sciences education, from newer high-resolution clinical imaging systems data. The key program is OsiriX, a free radiological image processing workstation software capable of directly reformatting and rendering volumetric 3D images. The transformed image arrays are then directly loaded into a commercial VR program to produce a variety of learning objects. Multiple types or "dimensions" of anatomical information can be embedded in these objects to provide different kinds of functions, including interactive atlases, examination questions, and complex, multistructure presentations. The use of clinical imaging data and workstation software speeds up the production of VR simulations, compared with reconstruction-based modeling from segmented cadaver cross-sections, while providing useful examples of normal structural variation and pathological anatomy.

Anatomy meets architecture: designing new laboratories for new anatomists.

General notions of architecture are familiar to anatomists, and they frequently use the word in describing the functional structures of cells, tissues, and whole organisms. Beyond concepts relating to orderly structure, anatomists infrequently encounter the profession of architecture and practicing architects. Significantly, anatomists can work with architects in the design and building of laboratories and classrooms, efforts that can have sustained effects on the practice of anatomy. In this paper, we consider cooperative interactions between anatomists and architects in designing new laboratories that accommodate educational innovations and increasingly valuable dissection resources. We begin by introducing architecture and architects in their roles in design and building. We next consider essential features and technologies for new laboratories that support a combination of classical dissection, prosection, models, and computer-based information. Different working conditions are reviewed for designing renovations of existing facilities, long-term planning for new, same-institution buildings, and extramural planning and construction for new medical schools. Whatever the project, anatomists work with architects in repeated interactive planning meetings that arrive at working laboratory designs by a process similar to successive approximation. In consulting on designs for extramural institutions, anatomists must balance client administration and faculty needs with objective oversight of practice-side design features, constraints, and capacity for innovative uses with new curricula. Architects are the key agents in producing laboratories designed for flexible and innovative anatomical education, although client-favored models for Internet-based technology can limit future use of cadavers in multiyear teaching of medical and health sciences students.

Diffusion of innovations: anatomical informatics and iPods.

Over the course of many centuries, evolving scientific methods and technologies have advanced the study of anatomy. More recently, such dissemination of innovations has been formally studied in multidisciplinary psychosocial contexts, yielding useful knowledge about underlying principles and processes. We review these precepts and show how diffusion of innovations theory and principles apply to the development and dissemination of anatomical information methods and resources. We consider the factors affecting the late-20th-century dissemination of personal computers and World Wide Web hypermedia into widespread use in anatomical research and instruction. We report on the results of a small experiment in applied diffusion, the development and Internet-based distribution of learning resources for a popular, widely distributed personal media player. With these wearable microcomputer devices already in use by a variety of students, new opportunities exist for widespread dissemination of anatomical information. The continuing evolution of wearable computing devices underscores the need for maintaining anatomical information transportability via standardized data formats.

Anatomical reasoning in the informatics age: Principles, ontologies, and agendas.

Reasoning about anatomy shares historical scientific roots with formal logic and artificial intelligence. With advances in computer-based intelligent programming, high-level biological structural knowledge may be exploited directly for biomedical research, clinical tasks, and educational applications. We consider the special nature of anatomical domain knowledge, emphasizing the complex concepts and semantics that must be represented in the development of ontologies, formally structured databases of biological information. We review the evolution of the fundamental scientific principles of logic and artificial intelligence needed for building machines that can make use of anatomical knowledge. We look at methods for compiling ontologies and compare the structural designs of the Foundational Model of Anatomy and Open GALEN ontologies. We further consider issues related to mapping developing anatomy resources with other biological ontologies in genomics, proteomics, and physiology. Although early results are promising, considerable resources and continuing effort must be committed to completing and extending anatomical ontologies for the ultimate success of computer-based anatomical reasoning. Anat Rec (Part B: New Anat) 289B:72-84, 2006. (c) 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Anatomical informatics: Millennial perspectives on a newer frontier.

One of the most ancient of sciences, anatomy has evolved over many centuries. Its methods have progressively encompassed dissection instruments, manual illustration, stains, microscopes, cameras and photography, and digital imaging systems. Like many other more modern scientific disciplines in the late 20th century, anatomy has also benefited from the revolutionary development of digital computers and their automated information management and analytical capabilities. By using newer methods of computer and information sciences, anatomists have made outstanding contributions to science, medicine, and education. In that regard, there is a strong rationale for recognizing anatomical informatics as a proper subdiscipline of anatomy. A high-level survey of the field reveals important anatomical applications of computer sciences methods in imaging, image processing and visualization, virtual reality, modeling and simulation, structural database processing, networking, and artificial intelligence. Within this framework, computational anatomy is a developing field focusing on data-driven mathematical models of bodily structures. Mastering such computer sciences and informatics methods is crucial for new anatomists, who will shape the future in research, clinical knowledge, and teaching.