Abstract
Computer applications have been incorporated as valuable elements in teaching, thanks to the innovation of new technologies in recent decades. The implementation of these computer developments in the field of medical education has been a true revolution. The authors present a computer development designed for PC environments that allows visualizing and interacting in a virtual environment with the main anatomical structures (bone, muscle, vascular, and visceral) of the female pelvis in three dimensions (3D) integrated with cadaveric sections and serial sections of magnetic resonance imaging. The consequence of the application of 3D environments for training and the integration of all these technological innovations in clinical medicine, together with the rapid evolution of information and communication technologies, is the emergence of a new teaching methodology with new opportunities for the development of the teaching-learning process.
TopBackground
“Anatomy”, defined as the science that studies the structure of the human organism, is a fundamental discipline in health education, which not only provides knowledge about the structure of the human body, but also contributes to enhance the development of skills and attitudes essential for the exercise of health professions, as many authors believe, including Rodriguez-Herrera et al. (2019).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Visible Human Project: Initiative to create an iconographic collection of sectional images of real human cadavers.
Three-Dimensional Computer Application: Computer program with the technical capacity to reproduce three-dimensional visual information, creating an illusion of depth in an image.
Regions of Interest: Delimited area of an image on which a certain action is to be performed or a parameter is to be evaluated.
Information and Communication Technologies: Any tool or technological development that serves to transmit knowledge in the field of education.
Serial Anatomical Sections: Term used in medicine and radiology for flat images obtained by imaging techniques that perform very fine ordered cuts of anatomical areas of an individual allowing a better correlation with the three-dimensional anatomical reality represented in two dimensions.
Anatomical 3D Models: Representation of an anatomical structure in three magnitudes (dimensions of space) of a set that allow defining a phenomenon.
Pelvic Floor: Set of muscles and ligaments located in the lower part of the abdominal cavity, whose function is to support the pelvic organs.
User Interface: Set of controls and sensory channels through which a human being can communicate with a machine.