Healthcare and education are under increasing pressure. More than ever, there is a need for fast and flexible access to accurate knowledge. Anatomy is an indispensable part of any healthcare professional's toolkit. But many health care curricula or training programs cannot provide sufficient opportunities for anatomy education and contact hours with teachers are declining.
Education is becoming increasingly patient- and problem-oriented and self-regulating, but the efficient provision of basic medical knowledge, such as anatomy, is lagging behind. There are many 3D anatomy apps on the market that are offered for students, and often institutes offer such apps to their students. However, what we see is that these are underused because these animated visualizations are too far removed from anatomical reality.
Low resource settings
A dissection room is a costly facility, and not every country has a facility to provide bodies for medical education and training. This may be due, for example, to the economic situation or to prevailing cultural beliefs. In many cases there are fewer educational and training opportunities compared to the Western world.
Enatom can offer a unique solution in such low-resource settings, in the form of a virtual version of a cutting room. In other words, a realistic simulation model of human anatomy that can be used flexibly. Contributing to reducing educational inequality in the world is a core value of Enatom.
“Enatom offers a sustainable alternative to textbooks and reduces educational inequality in low-resource settings. In doing so, we improve the anatomy education landscape and promote 'lifelong learning'.”
The solution
The healthcare professional of tomorrow studies anatomy largely through digital resources, remotely, with a preference for flexibility, pragmatism and time effectiveness. Enatom brings these two approaches together in a unique way, making a substantial addition to the digital education landscape for students and teachers.
In a unique process, the visualization of anatomical preparations in seven steps is made into a point-cloud model of millions of points. Our platform makes it possible to view these visualizations fluently and razor-sharp. The way of visualization ensures an extremely natural viewing experience while studying the preparations. Just as good or sometimes even better than in a real cutting room. This is due to the highly detailed level at which the statues are crafted. These are normally undetectable to the human eye at medium distance.
Validation
In recent years, Enatom has been used structurally among 1400 students (cohorts year 1-3 + dentistry year 1-2) of the RuG/UMCG. In the 'Enatom in the cloud' study, a collective of stakeholders investigated on the one hand how people reacted to the application and on the other hand how such an application can be implemented in accordance with the AVG legislation and data exchange (ISO27001) in the environment of a university knowledge institution. .
The knowledge institution was closed during the first Corona lockdown. Thanks to Enatom, students were still able to study anatomy in a realistic way, and gain a learning experience comparable to dissection room education. Students could download Enatom to their laptop via a link in the learning management system (blackboard). The teachers have used Enatom through preparation assignments, screen sharing/demonstration during webinars, and preparing certain preparations. From 2023, a study will be started in which Enatom will be compared with 'traditional' educational methods.
“Enatom innovates by providing sustainable, accessible, anytime, anywhere access to realistic anatomical content in order to increase learning outcomes.”
Lusanne Tehupuring / CEO Enatom
Prix Galien MedTech Innovation award
Enatom is the anatomy education for the healthcare professional of tomorrow! That was the jury’s verdict during the Prix Galien Award 2022. The jury highly praised our initiative because this 'digital anatomy atlas' contributes to an improved and innovative education of medical students and further training of medical professionals. The jury was also enthusiastic about the further development towards virtual and augmented reality that can be applied to medical practices.
