New tools to teach Medicine

New tools to teach Medicine

To study human anatomy, medical students no longer need the body of a deceased person, now doctors in training explore the human body virtually in an "anatomy table".

This is one of the technological equipment that is added to the simulation laboratories and three-dimensional printers (3D) with which the Faculties of Medicine count.

The University of Cuenca and the University of Azuay (UDA), each has an "anatomy table". This consists of a giant tablet, which has a screen of about two meters (m) that allows to see the cuts of the human body by segments and its functionality. For example, the circulation of the heart, liver, kidneys and others.

The organs and tissues of the body are seen in a three-dimensional way, their position, structure, conformation and correlation of the organs.

In addition, the table has a device that allows visualizing the cells that make up the organs, explains Bernardo Vega, dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Cuenca.

The device was recently acquired and is still not used in the classes, since the teachers are learning how to use it.

While in the UDA, they have the "anatomy table" from the 2015, says Marco Palacios, coordinator of the career of Medicine of the alma mater.

The equipment is used for classes with the students of the first years and has a program that allows to use images of a tomograph to represent them on the screen.

Innovations

In addition to the "anatomical table", last April the UDA acquired an 3D printer. The device allows you to print bones, ribs, skulls and other pieces so that students can become familiar with the actual size and do their practices, Palacios says.

It is even being managed to acquire materials that are similar to other organs such as liver or heart to print replicas of these and students practice in them.

"The impressions of the bones have the color and the real size of the parts of the human body ...", comments.

In the case of the University of Cuenca, has a Diagnostic Center that provides care at low cost and with medical professionals in acupuncture, electroencephalogram, phonoaudiology, tests and laboratory tests.

The institution bought a team for molecular biology analysis to detect diseases such as the Human Papilloma Virus, which causes cancer of the uterus, whose results are delivered in two hours, as well as diagnose sexually transmitted diseases, says Bernardo Vega, dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of this study center.

Simulation

The two universities have Simulation Rooms with mannequins on a human scale for students to practice processes such as childbirth, bleeding intervention, fetus revision and other medical procedures.

In these rooms the students of the last years are trained with the intention of participating in a scenario almost identical to what happens in a hospital and an operating room.

The deans agree that the update must be permanent in the teaching of the race.