At Valparaiso University, penetrating the human heart is not just an undergraduate interpersonal skills exercise or poetry review, but virtually infiltrating the body’s powerhouse.
The AlensiaXR HoloAnatomy.NEXT and HoloAnatomy Neuro.NEXT have been used at Valparaiso University over the past year for supplemental anatomy courses as part of the five-year accelerated physician assistant program. The fully accredited program is in its seventh year and welcomed the public to Harre Union Tuesday to experience the technology, which is not used anywhere else in Northwest Indiana.
This human heart can be made small enough to fit in the palm of a student’s hand. Its size is limited only by the size of the room. On Tuesday afternoon, he filled the cavernous ballroom to the ceiling, and guests were able to enter it like a scientific inflatable house, valves opening and closing, heart strings pulsing.
Donning the immersive XR Viewer, which uses Meta Quest 3 and Microsoft HoloLens, allows students to not only see organ systems in three dimensions, but also manipulate them. The nervous system is a great example.
“You can’t see the nerves very well on a cadaver, except for sciatica,” said Claudine Ruzga, a clinical assistant professor in VU’s physician assistant program. But with HoloAnatomy Neuro.NEXT, the nervous system was clearly displayed in yellow.
“We researched for several years before choosing this resource,” Ruzga said.
“Valpo has a long history in the medical field,” added Joe Zaweski, assistant dean and director of the physician assistant program, including when the university had a medical school about 100 years ago.
Today, VU trains PAs to help fill the shortage of healthcare professionals in this country. “It’s similar to a pre-med program,” Zaweski said of AP’s offering. “We are a little early,” he added. “Universities are moving more and more towards accelerated degrees. »
Paige Haluska, Class of ’27, has used HoloAnatomy before and said, “It’s much easier to visualize the structures. We saw the shoulder one (module) where the shoulder was lifting.” When studying the shoulder, Haluska said it was helpful to see the supraspinatus and deltoid muscles moving in real time, uncovered by the skin.
VU organizes the program by integrating pharmacology and anatomy into the organ system modules. HoloAnatomy is used throughout the PA curriculum, including to review procedures such as chest tube placement when students return from their clinics.
As VU and Alensia expand their technology offerings, students could eventually gain access to models of molecules such as hemoglobin, which could be used to better understand anemia, for example. The educational options seem limitless since “PAs can work anywhere a physician works,” Zaweski said, “in radiology, in psychiatry, in internal medicine.”
The field began in 1967 at Duke University when a professor of medicine was looking for a way to use the high level of skill developed by doctors during the Vietnam War.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
