Clinical anatomy : official journal of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists & the British Association of Clinical Anatomists
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Anatomy education is a challenging but vital element in forming future medical professionals. In this work, a personalized and interactive augmented reality system is developed to facilitate education. This system behaves as a "magic mirror" which allows personalized in-situ visualization of anatomy on the user's body. ⋯ Through the participation of 7 clinicians and 72 students, two user studies were designed to respectively assess the precision and acceptability of the magic mirror system for education. The results of the first study demonstrated that the average precision of the augmented reality overlay on the user body was 0.96 cm, while the results of the second study indicate 86.1% approval for the educational value of the magic mirror, and 91.7% approval for the augmented reality capability of displaying organs in three dimensions. The usefulness of this unique type of personalized augmented reality technology has been demonstrated in this paper.
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Body Worlds is an anatomical exhibition that shows human remains to the public. It has been considered controversial since it raises ethical tensions and issues. However, organizers and supporters of Body Worlds have claimed the exhibition is intended to promote visitors' understanding over the human body. ⋯ Average scores achieved on the quiz by the postvisit sample (X¯= 9.08, s = 2.48, n = 164) were significantly higher (unpaired t = 3.3957, P = 0.0008) than those achieved by the previsit sample (X¯= 8.11, s = 2.69, n = 167). Our results suggest that a visit to Body Worlds' event Facets of Life may have a beneficial effect in anatomical knowledge. However, further studies with better empirical designs and fewer limitations are needed to confirm our results.
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Pediatric emergency physicians, pediatric critical care specialists, and pediatric surgeons perform central venous catheterization in many clinical settings. Complications of the procedure are not uncommon and can be fatal. Despite the frequency of application, the evidence-base describing the surface landmarks involved is missing. ⋯ The SVC/RA junction was at the fourth CC in the youngest group and moved to the third CC/third ICS as the child grew. This study demonstrates the variable anatomy of SVC formation and the SVC/RA junction with respect to rib level. This variability underscores the unreliability of surface anatomical landmarks of the SVC/RA junction as a guide to catheter tip position.
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There is considerable agreement that the use of human bodies for teaching and research remains important, yet not all universities use dissection to teach human gross anatomy. The concept of body donation has evolved over centuries and there are still considerable discrepancies among countries regarding the means by which human bodies are acquired and used for education and research. Many countries have well-established donation programs and use body dissection to teach most if not all human gross anatomy. ⋯ In many countries, the act of body donation has been guided by laws and ethical frameworks and has evolved alongside the needs for medical knowledge and for improved teaching of human anatomy. There will also be a future need for human bodies to ensure optimal pre- and post-graduate training and for use in biomedical research. Good body donation practice should be adopted wherever possible, moving away from the use of unclaimed bodies of dubious provenance and adopting strategies to favor the establishment of successful donation programs.