Warwick Medical School releases Anatomy App

An e-learning tool that provides medical students with human anatomy revision, conceived and developed by the University of Warwick Medical School has been released on iTunes this month with worldwide critics acclaiming it as “the future of teaching”.

The product, an app called Imaging of the Human Anatomy, was almost singularly created by Professor of Clinical Anatomy Peter Abrahams; a pioneer with such technology in aiding learning quality and accessibility in the medical field.

Although released very recently on the iTunes website it has already attracted the attention of two leading scientific publications – the British Medical Journal and the US Chronicle – running features on the application as a major breakthrough with the use of cutting-edge equipment.

The 38 video clips which are equivalent to about a gigabyte of disc-space, can be downloaded for a combined price of £4.99, and offer the purchaser an intimate teaching experience. The app features Professor Abrahams using plastinated prosections of various organs to describe their detailed structure and functions. The Medical School sells it as “[bringing] medical theory to life.”

Professor Abrahams was far broader in his assessment of the product’s applicability, saying that “for surgeon radiologists GPs in training it will be a useful revision tool for exams and, in some cases, may be the first exposure to real clinical anatomy”. Indeed the prosections used are said to be the future of medicine as opposed to the use of actual organs, invariably provided by human cadavers. Whereas human organs deteriorate, these prosections, featured on Channel 4 News, are non-degradable exact replicas; created in a 3D printer at Warwick Medical School.

Some medical school students saw the app as ideal for their exam preparation and as refresher material as junior doctors. Post-graduate medicine student Baz Lazar said: “The app is really good – I’ve had Professor Abrahams for lectures many times and he has a very unique style which comes across very well in the videos.” He did add, however, that “post-grads get the videos free through the department”.

On the other hand, some Life Sciences students were less than enthusiastic about the University’s new innovation. Without wishing to be named, one said: “[the app] sounds interesting but I don’t know anything about anatomy so I’m not personally interested”. Another commented, “It’s all very well but unless its peer-assessed then it’s little more use than Wikipedia.”

The videos were around £15,000 to make and, according to Professor Abrahams, it was “very quick” to do so in collaboration with a development team headed by Kenneth Hunter. All money received from app downloads will go back into medical research, assuring students that this is not a profit-making exercise. Professor Abrahams, an “honoured member” of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA), is currently teaching in the USA, but he and the Medical School are optimistic that if the future lies in e-learning, the clamour for parachuting-in experts may soon fade; “You can’t replace good lecturing,” said Communications Manager Kate Cox, “but it gives access for students all over the world and puts the Medical School on the map”.