At the beginning of 2024, the Northern Netherlands Partnership awarded a subsidy to Enatom, UMC Groningen, Amsterdam UMC and MemoryLab for the Virtual Cutting Room 2.0. The consortium will work together until the end of 2025 with the aim of improving current anatomy education and making it more effective with the use of newly developed technologies. On this page you can read more information about the project, its objectives and the organization behind it.
Anatomical knowledge, the basis for every healthcare professional
Biomedical education, fundamental for healthcare professionals, is under pressure due to trends such as the exponential growth of knowledge, choices in curricula, focus on competencies and limited access to dissecting rooms. These trends influence the quality of education and therefore the practice of healthcare. Innovation in anatomy education is essential to address these challenges.
Valorization of high-quality knowledge and skills initiated from Groningen
This project is led by Enatom, based in Groningen, which works from the mission to make education more accessible through innovative digital solutions. Their knowledge is supplemented with the expertise of MemoryLab (adaptive learning) and a northern knowledge institution (UMCG). Specific knowledge is also brought to the Northern Netherlands through the new collaboration with Amsterdam UMC (knowledge carrier and problem holder). Together with a broad group of organizations affiliated through the Advisory Board, the consortium makes an important contribution to the objectives of OP-ERDF and the project contributes to strengthening the northern innovation ecosystem.
Development of a Northern Dutch solution for a global issue
In this project, the consortium works together on embalming techniques, visualizations, innovative software development and the demonstration of the Virtual Cutting Room: a unique and innovative platform that allows biomedical students and healthcare professionals to effectively develop and test their knowledge and skills in the field of anatomy independently of location and device in a lifelike, challenging way. In concrete terms, the work packages contribute to the following objectives:
- The quality, effectiveness and flexibility of biomedical studies are significantly improved because biomedical students and healthcare professionals can enrich and test their knowledge of anatomy in a lifelike and challenging way, independent of place, time and device.
- Educational inequality at regional, national and international levels is reduced and educational inclusivity is increased because all biomedical students and healthcare professionals (worldwide) have access to the dissection room, instead of just the “happy few” at the moment.
The virtual cutting room is a unique and innovative platform
The virtual cutting room differs from the existing version AND from existing initiatives in the following points:
- Photorealistic content on the platform.
- Visualize preparations faster and more efficiently by developing your own mobile scanning studio.
- Device independence (mobile, tablet, laptop, VR/XR/AR ready) through innovative streaming techniques based on point cloud technology (never used in a medical environment!).
- Personalized learning is linked to adaptive learning and testing on the platform. This unique way of learning optimizes the effectiveness of the platform.
Advisory Board
In addition to the formal applicants, this project also has an Advisory Board. This is a group of organizations from the (northern) innovation ecosystem that are actively involved in the project, the dissemination of the project results and the eventual marketing of the results by Enatom. This concerns the following parties:
LIFE Cooperative: LIFE Cooperative is a cooperative association of Life Science and Medical Technology companies in the three northern provinces.
HTRIC: Health Technology Research & Innovation Cluster (HTRIC) connects research, health technology and clinical practice for more healthy years of life.
Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health (AJSPH): The AJSPH is a partnership between the RUG, the UMCG, the Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen and NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences that work together towards a common goal: more healthy years of life.
Department of Surgery of Medical Center Leeuwarden (MCL): The MCL is a Frisian top clinical hospital with a strong ambition, namely to become one of the best hospitals in the Netherlands.
Groningen Digital Business Center (GDBC): GDBC is a collaboration between the RUG and Northern Online Entrepreneurs and aims to strengthen the northern digital sector.
Hanze University Groningen (HG): The HG is a vibrant learning community where students, teachers and people from the professional field meet and learn from each other.
You delft: TU Delft works every day based on the mission “impact for a better society”. Innovation plays a major role in TU Delft's projects and in this project TU Delft sees the added value in collaboration in the field of point cloud technology.
IT Hub: The IT Hub is the organization where business, knowledge, innovation, talent and technology come together. The aim is to accelerate innovative developments by connecting students and companies.
NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences (NHL): NHL Stenden offers education at HBO level to more than 24.000 students. This project involves collaboration with the Nursing course, which currently consists of more than 1.000 students.
