We’re used to having x-rays and other imaging tests to see deep inside our bodies. But now medical students, doctors, and consumers will be able to use the iPad and forego damaging radiation, with results in minutes, thanks to a new app.
Created by Healthline and GE Healthymagination, in partnership with Visible Productions, the app features retina-display-ready (high-resolution screen technology) anatomy models of both sexes, including anatomical structures for orthopedics, cardiology, and neurology.
Visible Productions produced the 3-D modeling, high resolution graphics and animations for the app.
I don’t know about you but when I’m being treated for a health condition, I tend to ‘Google’ every resource I can find, then pile all those printouts into a folder and lug them to the doctor’s office. BodyMaps lets patients see a knee affected by osteoarthritis, or even how appendicitis affects the abdomen, by zeroing in on anatomical structures from the skin through the layers of muscles down to the organs and bones.
Illustrated videos that show those effects in high-resolution can be viewed by iPad users, as well.
The press release explained that BodyMaps is an interactive mobile version of its initial web-based version of Healthline BodyMaps launched last year on Healthline.com, and it’s now also available on Yahoo and Sharecare.
“I see BodyMaps as both a learning and teaching tool for nurses, healthcare, and body workers, even high school and elementary students first learning anatomy. It’s a great patient education tool for ancillary staff in the physician’s office,” said Gloria Horns, R.N., JD, a nurse educator and patient advocate from UCSF.
The app comes richly loaded, including full-color, high-resolution display 3D images depicting over 1,000 anatomical structures, 30 rotatable models of parts of the body such as the eye, knee, and heart; 200 videos covering specific conditions, and related symptoms, procedures, and treatments; navigation of all layers of the anatomy: “pinch, expand, drag, and tap your way through the body and related content,” as the press release noted; social media ready so users can easily share images via e-mail or Facebook; search tools that use either clinical terms or everyday language, and mark-up tool to draw directly on an image to illustrate specific conditions, procedures, or therapies.
The true beauty of 3D anatomical images is that they cannot break, like the plastic casts and pieces used in the past, and do not require any storage space or a dust cover, providing new ways of viewing the body in a more efficient and cost-effective learning process that takes less time for the harried medical professional.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman
