The HoloAnatomy® Software Suite emerged out of a vision by CWRU and 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 a cadaver-based curriculum to a new digital, “Living Anatomy” curriculum.
Studies have shown that HoloAnatomy is not only effective and time-saving, but prefereable over cadaveric dissection in some aspects.
In a controlled trial in the musculoskeletal system, students who learned in HoloAnatomy® 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 HoloAnatomy® as compared to a cadaver lab.
HoloAnatomy® 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.
Seeing inside the body in true 3D has given the CWRU SOM students a leg up on anatomy -
“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
