The HoloAnatomy® Software Suite* emerged out of a vision by CWRU and the Cleveland Clinic to establish a new Health Education Campus named the Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion.
As building plans were made, interest in exploring the most advanced learning technology combined with an early introduction to Microsoft HoloLens led to a dramatic change in the CWRU School of Medicine (SOM) anatomy curriculum, from cadaver-based to a new digital, “Living Anatomy” curriculum. The result is a first-in-kind, engaging and academically tested and validated mixed reality medical anatomy education tool.
*patent pending.
Studies have shown that the HoloAnatomy® Software is not only effective and time-saving, but preferable over cadaveric dissection in some aspects.
In a controlled trial in the musculoskeletal system, students who learned using the HoloAnatomy® Software achieved the same scores as those that were in the cadaver lab, but the ones who learned in HoloLens did so in about half of the time. This has since been repeated and the results confirmed. Other studies have shown a dramatic improvement in students’ long-term retention of knowledge when using the HoloAnatomy® Software as compared to a cadaver lab.
The HoloAnatomy® Software has now been installed as the primary means of medical education at the CWRU SOM since the academic year 2019/2020, and was even modified to be taught virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.
From our CWRU School of Medicine students -
“I think the hardest part of anatomy is the relationships, and the biggest strength of HoloLens is being able to stick your face in and see the relationships between things. What's deep to it, what’s superficial, to it what's lateral... just how to find things.”
MITCHELL THOM
MD CANDIDATE '23
“Looking at reproductive tissues and the urinal track, it was much better on HoloLens. It's not even... it was so good. You could see every structure, it was well defined. You could see the margins and really intricate structures that you can't see grossly with the naked eye on a cadaver.”
DOMINIQUE TUCKER
MD CANDIDATE '23
“You're able to see microstructures, and things that you normally wouldn’t see in a body because they were torn during dissection or they're too small to see. You can appreciate how things are in relation to each other in terms of location and depth - HoloLens provides that."
KAELYNN WORKMAN
MD CANDIDATE '23
Learn more about Ilumis and the
HoloAnatomy ® Software Suite
PUBLICATIONS
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The IC Featured in Educause Review
The IC’s work on mixed reality education was featured in an article by CWRU CIO Sue Workman that appeared in...
