(March 13, 2019) — To help shore up medical care in areas of the country known as “healthcare deserts” where minorities have little or no access to primary care doctors, The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) will kick-off a virtual reality program in anatomy to prepare undergraduates pursuing careers in medicine.
“My hope is to give the next generation of physicians the competitive edge they require to succeed in rigorous professional schools and, more importantly, to help relieve the looming shortage of minority doctors,” said Eddie Hernandez, assistant professor in practice in the UTSA Department of Biology.
This week, a cohort of approximately 180 undergraduate juniors and seniors are taking course work in surgical anatomy and other medical topics through the Learning Enrichment in Medical and Surgical Anatomy (LEMSA) week-long seminar. The inaugural program incorporates virtual reality to help students better understand concepts in gross anatomy in preparation for medical or dental schools.
“VR is a perfect introduction to anatomy, as it allows the student to make mistakes often,” said Brett Chapa, a recent grad of UTSA currently applying to medical school and now serving as a collaborator of the program. “Mistakes are an essential part of education, and VR allows the student to explore the human body without compromising the structural integrity of those that donate their lives to science.
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, universities around the world are using virtual reality to make medical education easier to grasp. The Taiwan Medical School has just announced that it will utilize one of the largest virtual reality anatomy labs in the world to teach its new incoming class. Even medical associations call for a better integration of technology with existing medical curriculum. Data from The Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association shows that students are more successful in anatomy courses when traditional laboratory instruction is combined with augmented reality.
UTSA’s spring break program will give students an opportunity to personalize their training by choosing exactly what they want to see. Participants can view each organ in 3D and virtually dissect structures to better understand the internal structures.
“Virtual reality allows students to take a very intimate look at the gross anatomy of the body,” said Hernandez.
The United States could see a shortage of up to 120,000 physicians by 2030, impacting patient care across the nation, according the Association of American Medical Colleges. That, coupled effect of a growing senior population that is estimated to grow by 50 percent in two decades and the retiring rate of doctors, could have the greatest impact on supply. Since it takes up to 10 years to train a doctor, the current shortage of medical professionals poses a real risk to patients.
UTSA undergraduates that enter into the pre-medical and pre-dental program has grown by 62 percent since 2008. The gross anatomy conference is March 11 – March 17 on the UTSA Main Campus.
