Professor Juliet Wright, Director of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning at BSMS, adds: “We are really pleased to be able to deliver this innovative blended programme to maintain our high standards for teaching in anatomy during these challenging times and are greatly indebted to our donors and families for their support to our course.”
Student feedback from those who attended the brain removal session this week has included “it was an incredible experience to see a human brain in such detail and the cranial cavity” and “it’s definitely a learning curve with all the new tech tools, but I really felt that I gained an incredibly valuable experience by being present during the session. I know that I speak on behalf of all the Medical Neuroscience students when I say that we are very grateful for the opportunity to be included on something like this!”
It is not only medical students who are benefiting from this innovation. In September, a week-long course was arranged by Dr Jag Dhanda, Consultant Maxillofacial/Head and Neck Reconstructive Surgeon at Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, who used the live stream to demonstrate surgical procedures on cadavers with virtual reality (VR), or 360 cameras.
Multiple camera angle perspectives in the virtual reality view was live streamed to 350 surgeons from 26 countries around the world. These surgeons were able to view the surgical techniques on cadavers through virtual reality headsets that allowed them to choose the camera angle perspective they wanted by moving their heads.
Specialties involved include maxillofacial/head and neck surgeons, plastic surgeons, ear nose and throat surgeons, orthopaedics, breast, vascular surgeons and hand surgeons, as well as anaesthetists and emergency medicine doctors.
Dr Dhanda said: “We have all had to adapt in how we deliver teaching and training for doctors in the COVID-19 era. Using a readily available technology like VR provides a much more immersive experience for trainees in which they literally feel they are 'in the room’ with the tutor.
“Using this in the anatomy laboratory at BSMS with cadavers is a unique approach that has enabled us to provide a worldwide first in demonstrating surgical techniques in this manner.”
For enquires related to body donation please contact the London Anatomy Office.