“I’m going to remove the liver,” said fourth-year medical student Wyel Halimeh to the half-dozen or so first- and second-year medical students viewing the procedure.

“Oh, that’s cool,” remarked one of the students.

In reality, the cadaver was nowhere to be seen. Using virtual reality technology and head-mounted devices, the students were observing the procedure on a digital body.

This year, KU School of Medicine-Wichita joined the growing number of medical schools using VR headsets to augment anatomy studies.

At the end of July, third- and fourth-year students from the newly formed KUSM-Wichita Anatomy Student Interest Group hosted an event to introduce and demonstrate the recently acquired headsets to first- and second-year students. About 20 students showed up to try out the headsets during ASIG’s inaugural event. ASIG membership is currently open to second- through fourth-year students, with plans to open memberships to first-year students in the spring, Halimeh said.

With the VR headsets, the students had both 3D and cross-sectional views of the body, which can be viewed either standing up or supine.

The demonstrators used classroom mode, which means all users are viewing the same body image and observing what the demonstrators were doing. In non-classroom mode, users could do self-guided exploration on a body projection visible only to the individual and controlled by hand-held devices.

Unlike cadaver dissection, the VR headsets allow an instructor to literally highlight parts of the body to illustrate or focus attention on a particular area. Organs can be easily removed and replaced. Various medical and health conditions can be simulated during a single session.

“It was very realistic and very lifelike,” said Jonah Wolters, a first-year student.

“It was definitely interesting and something I’ve never experienced,” first-year student Maya Bishop said. “I can see how it will enhance our experiences.”

The headsets are currently being used as part of the daylong Clinical Anatomy Mentorship Program, which began this year. Developed by KUSM-W students, CAMP is a peer-to-peer program where fourth-year medical students teach surgical anatomy to third-year medical students.

“It’s something we wouldn’t be able to do without the VR technology,” said ASIG member and fourth-year medical student Stephen Douglas.

The headsets will also be used in events organized by ASIG to enhance anatomy education for first- and second-year students, said Laura Tatpati, M.D., dean of KUSM-Wichita. “This is beneficial for our campus as we have a smaller faculty base here in anatomy.”

For assorted reasons — ranging from economics to cadaver shortages to better visual representations — medical schools have been incorporating VR technology into anatomy education during the past several years. A few, such as Case Western Reserve University, have a completely cadaver-less curriculum.

At KUSM-Wichita, cadavers continue to be part of the curriculum, noted Patty Tenofsky, M.D., a clinical associate professor in surgery and the anatomy lab clinical educator.

For education or coursework requiring human cadavers, KUSM-Wichita students and faculty use the anatomy lab at Newman University, which is also used by Newman’s students. Wichita State University has the only other cadaver lab in Wichita.

The new Wichita Biomedical Campus will have a state-of-the-art anatomy lab that will include both cadavers and VR technology. The campus, located in downtown Wichita and scheduled to open in 2027, will allow KUSM-Wichita to increase class sizes for its first- and second-year students from 28 to about 70 students. Third- and fourth-year classes will remain at about 70 students each.

Above, left: Maya Bishop, first-year medical student, tries out a virtual reality headset.

Support the anatomy program

Support for the anatomy program will need to increase with the growth in students, Tatpati said. Items like the VR headsets are purchased with money from the dean’s endowment fund. To donate to the fund, contact Brad Rukes, KU Endowment senior development director-Wichita, at 316-292-2641 or brukes@kuendowment.org.