Anatomy Lab of Dreams
Fall 2015聽| By Wendy Spirduso Sarubbi
Professor Andrew Payer will never forget the 25-year-old patient who entered his office days before a stage 4 brain cancer surgery that could buy the man time 麻豆精品 S� or kill him. The patient said that if things didn 麻豆精品 S檛 work out, he wanted to donate his body to Payer 麻豆精品 S檚 medical school lab in Galveston, Texas.
Andrew Payer, professor of anatomy at the UCF College of Medicine.
The man died on the operating room table. Months later, when a new class of medical students saw his cadaver and remarked on his youth, Payer told them about saying goodbye to the man and relayed his message. Now a professor of anatomy at the College of Medicine, Payer runs the state-of-the-art Anatomy Lab, where he continues to tell this story to convey to his students the importance of the donation that their 麻豆精品 S渇irst patients 麻豆精品 S� have made. Because to Payer, the Anatomy Lab experience is more than an exercise in cataloging organs and body structures 麻豆精品 S� it 麻豆精品 S檚 about understanding life, death and humanity.
Payer has taught anatomy for almost 40 years and describes UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 innovative facility as the lab of his dreams, where technology complements an integrated curriculum incorporating basic and clinical sciences. Memorizing body parts won 麻豆精品 S檛 make students good physicians, Payer says. Instead, students need to understand the clinical impact of disease and aging so they can care better for their patients.
Dr. Detectives
As part of the Anatomy Lab curriculum, medical students do not know their cadaver 麻豆精品 S檚 cause of death 麻豆精品 S� instead, they spend 17 weeks on a detective mission to determine it. They then present their findings to faculty judges, including former Orange-Osceola Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jan Garavaglia. 麻豆精品 S淭hese [students] are made to think … about what they 麻豆精品 S檙e finding and put it in a bigger perspective, 麻豆精品 S� she says. 麻豆精品 S淚t 麻豆精品 S檚 a wonderful thing they 麻豆精品 S檙e doing. It 麻豆精品 S檚 very novel. … These are the people that we need to take care of us as we get older, so it 麻豆精品 S檚 important that we have a good medical school. 麻豆精品 S�
Four聽High-tech Tools that UCF Uses聽to Empower Medical Students
Digital Anatomy Table
The latest innovation is the Anatomage Table, which allows students to virtually isolate and visually dissect countless 3-D layers of a digital body. Push a button, and you see every bone in the skeletal system or the web of nerves leading to the brain. Make a digital cut with your finger, and you see a cross section of a patient 麻豆精品 S檚 liver. Scan your patient 麻豆精品 S檚 head, and see images of every muscle, nerve and artery around the eye. Using an interactive display, students can quiz themselves. The table also allows students to use digital instruments like needles and probes to see how they actually pass through tissues and muscle. Such innovation helps fourth-year students visualize how they will do surgery before they ever enter an operating room.
Bigger-Than-Life Organs
The lab 麻豆精品 S檚 80-inch, high-definition, touch-screen monitor allows faculty and students to compare giant anatomical images in stunning detail. Students can compare a textbook drawing of a heart with a CT scan of their cadaver 麻豆精品 S檚 heart, allowing them to understand the human body 麻豆精品 S檚 individuality. Detailed images also show how muscles, arteries and organ systems connect and interact, allowing students to work together to solve anatomical issues. Team learning is a key part of the medical school 麻豆精品 S檚 curriculum, helping students understand that health care is most successful when people work together.
iPad Education
Apple AirPlay technology allows Payer to capture images of unique pathologies with his iPad and project them to every computer screen in the room. Each of the 20 dissection tables has a high-definition screen overhead, and screens also line the lab 麻豆精品 S檚 walls. Students don 麻豆精品 S檛 have to crowd around one dissection table struggling to see 麻豆精品 S� they look up from their stations and get a detailed lesson. A recent 麻豆精品 S渇irst patient 麻豆精品 S� had lung cancer that had spread. Thanks to technology, all 120 students saw the cancer and how its metastasis had infiltrated the body.
CT Scan Collaboration
Every year, Central Florida radiologist Dr. Rick Ramnath and his partners at NeuroSkeletal Imaging take full-body CT scans of every cadaver donated to the College of Medicine. The donation gives students experience in medical imaging and a detailed look at clogged arteries, artificial hips and cancerous tumors before they start dissecting. Scans can be viewed on the computer screens at each anatomy table to increase learning opportunities. Ramnath 麻豆精品 S檚 donation is inspired by Dr. Deborah German, dean of UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 medical school. German was the associate dean for students at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine when Ramnath was a student, and he says she made sure students got the most out of medical school. 麻豆精品 S淲hen I heard [Dr. German] was coming to be dean of Orlando 麻豆精品 S檚 new medical school, I had to reach out and do my part to help, 麻豆精品 S� he says.