Emerging Technologies for Health and Medicine

CHAPTER 2USING 3D SIMULATION IN MEDICAL EDUCATION: A COMPARATIVE TEST OF TEACHING ANATOMY USING VIRTUAL REALITY

CHUNG VAN LE, J.G. TROMP, VIKRAM PURI

Duy Tan University, Da Nang, Vietnam

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Abstract

Our project created a 3D model in Virtual Reality (VR) of the human body for anatomy training. We modeled the skeletal, muscle, nervous, digestive, and cardiovascular systems to teach anatomy. A study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the application for teaching anatomy at three major medical training universities. The research was conducted with a total of 135 students participating in the research from these three universities. 45 students from each school were divided into three conditions based on the teaching method: a plastic manikin, a real cadaver, or the 3D VR model. The scores of the groups using the 3D VR simulation at the three universities were consistently higher than the other conditions. The remarkable difference in the groups scores suggests that 3D VR simulation technology can be effective and efficient for teaching anatomy.

Keywords: 3D Virtual Reality Simulation, Anatomy, 3D Human Body Simulation, Medical Training

2.1 Introduction

Teaching anatomy relies on observational practice [1, 2]. At most universities, students learn through the plastic mannequins and pictures while progressively more universities stopped using cadavers to teach anatomy [4, 7]. Using cadavers ...