Hello, USDLA friends!
At our 2023 National Conference in July, we had the honor of interviewing our sponsor, Anatomage. Founded in 2004 as a 3D imaging software company, Anatomage has grown into a global medical content and 3D visualization company. Headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, Anatomage’s business includes diagnostic imaging software, medical education systems, and educational web-based platforms.
Scroll down for our Q&A with the company’s leaders. Be sure also to check out the research below showing why Anatomage’s tools are so effective. And, don’t miss our video interview Anatomage on USDLA.tv.
Mark your calendar:
- USDLA Free Friday webinars, 1-2pm Eastern: We have loads of amazing webinars scheduled for the coming months, including this week’s presentation about Trends in Distance Learning with USDLA president Chuck Sengstock, long-time USDLA Advisory Board member Dr. William Ryan, and USDLA State Chapters Chair Erica Bell. Scroll down for details. Click here to register: usdla.org/webinars.
- Sept. 28, 6pm: NEDLA Webinar, “Out of this world — Teaching STEAM with Music,” presented by music educator and NASA Space Station Ambassador Laurie Orth. Find details below.
- National Distance Learning Week is Nov. 6-10. Click here for more information.
- March 1, 2024: Save the Date — The New Jersey Distance Education Affinity Group (NJDEAG), a committee of the New Jersey Community College Council (NJCCC), is proud to present its second annual distance education conference. Learn about technological innovation, research, and practical and effective pedagogical practices for various distance education modalities, including fully online courses, hybrid/blended, concurrent/blended synchronous, remote, and hyflex. Find details below and learn more at teach.mccc.edu/conferences
- If you haven’t already: Please subscribe to our new YouTube channel — www.USDLA.tv.
We’ll be back in touch on Thursday with our USDLA Brief. Until then, all the best to you! — USDLA Communications Committee
Q&A with Anatomage
USDLA: Tell us about Anatomage — its history and goals for the future.
Anatomage: We have established a unique infrastructure consisting of software tools and hardware systems that allow for the most technologically advanced 3D anatomy. This setup enables us to deliver the most accurate reconstructions of real people who donated their bodies to science, called the Anatomage Bodies. Anatomage Bodies are available through the Anatomage Table, Tablet, and VR systems as well as on our web-based platform, Anatomage eBook. Our mission is to develop innovative technology that visualizes anatomy at the highest level of accuracy. As the pioneer in 3D anatomy visualization, we aim to become a platform that improves every aspect of healthcare.
USDLA: What have been your organization’s biggest challenges?
Anatomage: Anatomage has developed 3D anatomy visualization technology for classrooms across the world, and we have successfully created an ecosystem of hardware and software solutions to support educators. The Anatomage Table has become the premier tool for virtual 3D anatomy for middle schools and medical schools. One of our biggest challenges has been connecting students to our anatomy contents outside of the classroom and making it accessible for students anywhere they want to study.
We created the Anatomage eBook to give students access to two of our Anatomage Bodies and 39 anatomy and physiology chapters. With the eBook, students can visualize the human body through actual human cadavers, explore detailed body systems in chapters of the A&P curriculum, and interact with real patient pathology CT cases. The Anatomage eBook is being incorporated into high school and college curricula nationwide to prepare students for success in their healthcare careers.
USDLA: Tell us about your organization’s big wins and what you look forward to in the coming years.
Anatomage: Anatomage recently announced Table 10, the latest software update for the Anatomage Table. Table 10 furthers Anatomage’s legacy of digitizing real anatomy and introduces exclusive anatomical contents and groundbreaking features that elevate users’ clinical education and training. Learners, educators, and professionals can experience a cadaver of an older adult impacted by cancer and engage with a fully interactive 3D simulation of the childbirth process.
The Birth Simulation offers the world’s first fully 3D interactive birth simulation featuring real anatomy. With the Birth Simulation, learners can fully visualize in 3D from any angle the anatomical transformation taking place inside a pregnant body during the different stages of labor, including cervical dilation, infant rotation and head movements, and the release of the placenta.
With the launch of Table 10, we are expanding our digital bodies beyond anatomy. The digital bodies can be utilized for clinical training and surgical procedure simulations. Table 10 sets a new standard for studying anatomy and paves the way for an extensive, scientific exploration into the human body that will benefit generations to come.
USDLA: As a sponsor to our organization, has USDLA been helpful in your efforts?
Anatomage: USDLA has provided a bridge for Anatomage to connect with educational leaders in the distance learning community. We support USDLA and attend the annual conference to be able to further connect with their community and learn about the community’s needs. We are constantly looking forward to the future and identifying ways to be able to better support distance learning.
USDLA: How can USDLA help you and other organizations be more effective?
Anatomage: USDLA has proven to be a great organization for fostering relationships between industry leaders and educators. USDLA can continue to grow its network of distance learning educators, and it will, in turn help companies like ours to network and grow our partnerships.
Learn more:
RESEARCH OF THE WEEK:
Here’s why Anatomage is so effective
Anatomy is regarded as a cornerstone of health care education and is normally a pre-requisite for clinicians. Even though cadaver dissection and prosection have been perceived as the “gold standard” in recent years, their use appeared to be replaced by many innovative teaching technologies. The present study incorporated a three-dimensional (3D) virtual human cadaver—Anatomage Table (AT)—in teaching human anatomy to first-year nursing students in a quasi-experimental design. The results show that the class average in mid-term and final examinations and the overall Grade Point Average (GPA) were significantly higher in students taught with the AT than students taught without the AT. On a satisfaction survey, 84.0% of students reported a positive experience with the AT, and 85.4% indicated they would recommend this teaching tool to other students. For nursing programs without cadaveric dissection, the AT may serve as an effective teaching tool to increase the knowledge of anatomy and may enhance student’s long-term knowledge retention. Click here to learn more about how using a virtual human cadaver improves knowledge of human anatomy for medical students in the journal Science Direct: sciencedirect.com.
Anesthetists are responsible for developing expertise in neuraxial anesthesia. A thorough understanding of anatomy and physiology is essential in performing subarachnoid and epidural blocks. Although cadaveric dissection is considered the gold standard for learning anatomy, student use of cadavers can become limited due to supervisory, ethical, accessibility, and financial constraints (Periya and Moro, 2019). In recent years, the evolution of technology has produced a virtual option for cadaver dissection (Washmuth et al., 2020). The Anatomage virtual dissection table is a tool that could be used to increase knowledge of neuroanatomical structures and their spatial relationships in place of cadaveric dissection. Learning modules were developed utilizing the Anatomage table to learn and review anatomy pertinent to neuraxial anesthesia. Second-year anesthesia students at the host Nurse Anesthesia Program in their Fall 2022 semester participated in implementing these modules. Pre- and post-surveys analyzed with a Paired Two-sample t-test demonstrated significant improvement in the student’s knowledge and confidence when administering neuraxial anesthesia after completing the provided modules. Improving neuroanatomy knowledge leads to greater success and patient satisfaction when performing epidural or spinal anesthesia. Click here to read more about the research in the Southern Illinois Unversity journal, Spark: spark.siue.ed
USDLA Free Friday Webinar September 15 1-2 pm: Trends in Distance Learning
Presenters (from left to right): USDLA State Chapters Chair Erica Bell, USDLA Advisory Board member Dr. William Ryan, and USDLA president Chuck Sengstock.
About the Webinar: Whether you work in a school or higher education institution, it is hard not to feel a bit of that exhilarating back-to-school energy this month. The new school year starts with seemingly endless possibilities, new resources, and a host of new challenges.
So, this week’s Free Friday Webinar is dedicated to Trends in Distance Learning. Please join Erica, Bill, Chuck, and others from the USDLA Board and community as they share updates on topics they are following, which our members tell us matter most to them.
We would love to hear from you about the most useful resources you have encountered recently. Whether it is a tool, a paper, or a book, or simply a topic that has captured your attention, please also bring your questions and insights to add to the conversation or send them ahead of time to voleinik@usdla.org. We will answer as many participant-submitted questions as possible in this session and use others to continue the conversation in the coming weeks and months.
Click here to sign up for this Free Friday Webinar!
NEDLA Webinar Thursday, September 28, 6 pm:
Out of this World: Teaching STEAM with Music
Presenter: Laurie Orth, Music Educator and NASA Space Station Ambassador
About the Webinar: This dynamic session combines two contrasting disciplines of space exploration and music. It creates a pipeline for young people into STEAM educational programs through music.
In this session: You will learn about the connection of arts in STEAM/STEM education and the many ways to help inspire students’ interest in technical fields through their love of the arts and space education.
About the presenter: In more than two decades of teaching in various settings, since 2012, Laurie Orth has been teaching general music classes to the homeschool community in Augusta, Georgia. An independent contractor at the Jessye Norman School for the Arts, she has taught workshops for the Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia featuring women in aerospace and rockets. In 2021, Laurie spearheaded a Project Learning activity for her students at Savannah River Academy to create a space-themed music YouTube video, Space Explorers Anthem, in preparation for an ARISS Downlink with the ISS. In July 2022, Laurie was a guest instructor at the Douglas Space and Science Foundation Inc.’s Star Camp in Ogden, Utah. In 2019, Laurie published her first book, Rocket Recorder: Volume One, an innovative music workbook for recorder students that introduces space exploration. She has presented her STEAM curriculum internationally and is a frequent podcast guest. In 2023, she launched a digital download product, Rocket Recorder – Satellite Edition, available exclusively through Music CoConstructedLaurie serves as a Space Station Ambassador for the ISS National Lab’s CASIS program, is a Teacher Liaison with the Space Foundation and is President of the Savannah Chapter of the Air and Space Forces Association. In 2019, she was selected as a NASA social media influencer. In June 2023, Laurie heads to NASA Johnson Space Center to attend the prestigious LiftOff2023 Institute for STEM Educators to learn about planetary defense and asteroids. Learn more at www.laurieorth.com.
Register for this session: www.NEDLA.org.
Save The Date: March 1, 2024
The New Jersey Distance Education Affinity Group (NJDEAG), a committee of the New Jersey Community College Council (NJCCC), is proud to present its second annual distance education conference. It showcases technological innovation, research, and practical and effective pedagogical practices for various distance education modalities, such as fully online, hybrid/blended, concurrent/blended synchronous, remote, and hyflex.
Tracks for this year’s conference will examine:
- Leadership and Innovation
- Creativity in Teaching and Learning
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The Conference will be held at The Conference Center at Mercer, Mercer County Community College — 1200 Old Trenton Rd., West Windsor, NJ 08550
Click here to learn more: teach.mccc.edu/conferences