Anatomy education for medical students in a virtual reality workspace: A pilot study.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a challenge for many medical schools, as they have had to adjust their curricula into an online format. This was particularly problematic for anatomy courses as in person dissections have historically been preferred for providing students with a three-dimensional learning environment. In this study, we aim to share our experience with conducting anatomy lectures for medical student using a virtual reality (VR) workspace. Additionally, we discuss the advantages of using VR and expand on how it may be used to improve students' understanding of anatomy in comparison to various other online lecture formats. To do this, we utilized a post-lecture survey to gain feedback from the medical students that participated in a VR anatomy workspace. We found that many of our participants expressed that having access to their course material from anywhere and anytime via a virtual space, and being able to manipulate anatomical structures by moving and modifying them provided the student with a strong advantage. Although there are still limitations, we hope that our experience will assist other anatomy teachers with improving their lecture methods, especially during the pandemic.

Easy three-dimensional scanning technology for anatomy education using a free cellphone app.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought difficult times to anatomy educators and medical/dental students. Under normal circumstances, gross anatomy classes give students opportunities to touch and observe human bones and cadaveric tissues, thus enhancing their understanding; such morphology is difficult to learn from textbooks alone. As many studies have shown, three-dimensional (3D) technologies used in online lectures can serve as alternatives to real specimens for providing knowledge of anatomy. However, such technologies are often expensive. The goal of this study was to create 3D anatomy models for online lectures using a free cellphone app. Free application software (Qlone) was used to create 3D anatomical models. The extracranium and intracranium of adult skull, fetal skull, mandible, temporal bone, second cervical vertebra, and ilium were all scanned and exported to the computer in 3D format. A total of 53 anatomical structures were evaluated by nine observers. Although the 53 structures used in this study did not include all the structures that students need to learn, visibility was good/acceptable for most of the 53. The free and simple 3D scanning app used in this study could enable anatomy educators to provide better content to students during online lectures.

A new option for education during surgical procedures and related clinical anatomy in a virtual reality workspace.

The COVID-19 pandemic and mandatory social distancing has brought challenges to anatomy educators who generally need in-person classes. The purpose of this study is to share the experience of a distant online lecture on a surgical procedure and related anatomy in a three-dimensional (3D) virtual reality (VR) workspace and to compare it with reported teaching methods, that is, an in-person class and a Zoom online class. The lecture was delivered by three authors of this article in a VR workspace that enables people to meet through VR. The lectures were about combinations of dental surgical procedures and related clinical anatomy. Physically, the attendees could have been located anywhere in the world, so lecturers joined from the United States and the attendees were all from Japan. VR environment and its flexibility enabled attendees to join the lecture actively, helping them to gain understanding of the surgical procedure and anatomy more efficiently. The use of VR technology with a live communication tool demonstrated in this study has several advantages over previous education methods, although there are still technical issues or disadvantages that need to be addressed. Development of the technology and app/software is required so that more data can be processed at higher speed. Use of VR technology with a live communication tool could be an alternative teaching method. Its overall advantages are a closer look at the slides/monitor and concurrent observation of the multiple assets in various directions by multiple attendees. These advantages cannot be achieved by any other teaching method without VR assets with the workspace provided by Spatial. Even during the mandatory social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this could enable us to foster 3D understanding of surgery and related anatomy. Further study is now needed to evaluate the effectiveness of this newly proposed teaching method by comparing it with traditional in-person and online classes with a live communication tool.