2023-10-05 10:02:00
The rapid advancement of medicine requires that health career students be up to date in the use of technological tools, along with technical knowledge and clinical practice. Along these lines, the U. San Sebastián (USS) has incorporated innovative support supports in the training of its professionals, such as virtual anatomical tables, clinical simulators and virtual reality.
Carlos Pérez and Loreto Twele, both doctors and infectious disease specialists, join the training of medical students at the USS: the first as dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Science; and the second as an academic of this discipline at the De La Patagonia headquarters, in Puerto Montt.
In retrospect, they remember their years as students when they took their first courses in anatomy, histology (study of cells), and pathophysiology (study of the functioning of the disease), to acquire general scientific training, and thus get closer to the discipline. Everything was very different. To begin with, the laboratories were not integrated. In one sector were the microscopes from where they had to draw the cells, and go to another part of their schools to review real skulls and brains, which they then complemented by reviewing large books or their photocopies to imagine the complete image of the microscopic and functional appearance of all of them. those parts of the human body, thinking about possible diseases or pathologies.
Dr. Carlos Pérez, infectious disease specialist, dean of the USS Faculty of Medicine and Science.
One of the changes in the training of health career students is the incorporation of Clinical Simulation Hospitals, which are replicas of controlled clinical environments with technological “patients” with human characteristics to recreate what would happen in a center. of health.
The advantages of this methodology are that learning takes place in a safe environment, where the student is the protagonist of his learning guided by a teacher in the role of facilitator. It allows individual and group reflection, an evaluation of results is carried out in a standardized context and favors not only the development of technical skills of professional practice, but also supports the development of complex professional skills.
In addition, students participate in multidisciplinary teams, guided by teachers who place them in different scenarios where the teams’ leadership capacity is tested in high-stress situations. The sessions are recorded for later analysis in order to enhance clinical reasoning (debriefing).
The U. San Sebastián has Clinical Simulation Hospitals in its four locations (Santiago, Concepción, Valdivia and Puerto Montt) and today the university takes a new step with the inclusion of the latest technology in medical learning: anatomical tables digital, the same ones used in renowned universities, such as Stanford University or the University of Pennsylvania (United States).
They are giant tablets measuring 2 meters by 70 centimeters, with a touch screen, that allow images of real human bodies to be analyzed in detail and virtually, on which dissections can be performed and “observe all the aspects that are studied separately from one big screen,” explains the dean, from microscopic anatomy, the images in normality, with some pathology, so that students understand in an integrated and three-dimensional way.
The U. San Sebastián incorporated digital anatomy tables in its four campuses in Santiago, Concepción, Valdivia and Puerto Montt.
Pediatric infectologist Loreto Twele, who also serves as head of the Pediatric Service at the Hospital of Puerto Montt, describes that this technology stands out for its interactive function in real size to that of an operating bed, which allows a new and detailed experience in the exploration and learning of human anatomy for future professionals training at USS.
Dr. Loreto Twele, infectologist, head of the Pediatric Service of the Puerto Montt Hospital and academic of Medicine at the USS De la Patagonia headquarters.
“It allows the medical student to come into contact with this table from the first year in the subject of Anatomy; in second year in Embryology; in the third year with Microbiology and so on throughout the training,” says the USS academic.
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The human-scale 3D table or platform started as a pilot project at the Valdivia headquarters in 2022. Francisco Navarrete, who is in his second year of USS Medicine, is one of the first students who has experienced this paradigm shift when it comes to studying. “Times have changed in terms of the study of health in general. Today I don’t use notebooks, and most of my classmates only study with tablets,” says the 19-year-old.
Regarding his experience with the digital anatomical table, he comments that “it offers many options that greatly facilitate and complement the learning of anatomy.” He even highlights the possibility of carrying a USB device to download the images and continue studying at his house. “It makes everything a lot easier,” she summarizes.
Although there are still at least five years until he graduates, the young man born in La Unión believes that the impact it will have on his training is only the beginning: “It will help me become familiar with concepts of the human body. In the future, the University hopes to include more simulators that will connect with greater facilities,” he comments, valuing the inclusion of this type of innovations in his professional training.
The possibilities with technology made by Anatomage It also allows you to delve deeper into hybrid learning, such as when a group of students is in front of the table, while others can be in a room observing the transmission of what the other team is analyzing.
On a practical day, a class at USS may cover the human musculoskeletal system. Students will be able to view the corpse with the table installed horizontally or vertically, which allows them to look from different perspectives. Then, they will be able to select the musculoskeletal part, and the software will separate the body into layers and thus see specific muscles, bones or joints on its own, until it can visualize the body in an MRI or X-ray, immediately integrating the common tools with the which a future doctor will have to study his patients.
Dean Carlos Pérez details the possible uses of the device: “If you want, you can look at the microscopy, see what the muscle cells are like, you just press a button and you have the myocytes, the muscle cells at a microscopic level, available.”
For her part, academic Loreto Twele points out that study days with this technology are simplified: “Today there is much more scientific material for medical education than there was when I studied, which were just a couple of books that are already virtualized. Everything together makes it easier to study.”
The virtual anatomical tables are seen by the Faculty’s academics as a complement that does not prevent investment in other aspects of the classrooms, such as the arrival of state-of-the-art microscopes at the campuses in the near future.
Although there is still time for the rest of the decade, both teachers believe that virtualization will take paths that will lead them not only to consider possible innovations, but to look cautiously at the advance of artificial intelligence and the amount of information available on the Internet, in order to value the information and scientific evidence that will nourish both the student community and the graduates. Likewise, always keep in mind that contact, respect and listening are vital aspects in the institutional values of the career, which every doctor must keep in mind when facing the reality of the clinic in the different territories of the country where they practice. future.
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