The Anatomage Table in the new classroom in N114 The Xavierite
This past summer, the Saint Xavier University (SXU) School of Nursing constructed a new classroom in room N114 that features an Anatomage Table, a state-of-the-art digital cadaver table, which is connected to a set of monitors on the walls that share its screen to the entire classroom.
The machine displays three-dimensional photos of real human cadavers, as well as animal cadavers, according to associate professor of Exercise Science Eric Krasich, who currently uses the space for his Anatomy and Physiology I Lab (EXSCL-200).
“They’re real cadavers. There are five of them that were donated to Environmental Science. There’s a long process of freezing the body and sectioning the body off and taking thousands of photos. They were uploaded into this table, so we’ve got five human cadavers. There are animal cadavers in here that allow for comparative anatomy, and also case studies where, not just a whole human body, but sectioned off into different regions,” Krasich said during an interview in the room with The Xavierite, displaying different settings on the table.
Charlene Bermele, Ph.D., Dean of the SXU School of Nursing, approved the space, as it was largely her idea.
“[The space] was very small [before], so now, we’ve had the opportunity to really open up the space and engage in other disciplines as well, so not only does Exercise Science use [the space], biology uses it, our Communication Sciences and Disorders program uses it,” Bermele stated, noting her perceived need for a bigger space. “We want what’s best for our students, right? We want the most sophisticated technology we can [get] in efforts to be creative in their learning,” she later explained.
“This stuff is very difficult to conceptualize. It’s very hard, and on a physical cadaver, we might be able to have that efficiency to connect what we’re teaching to what we’re seeing,” Krasich described in reference to the study of anatomy and physiology.
During the interview with Krasich and Bermele, Krasich explained the nature of the table while displaying how it connected to various monitors around the classroom: “[The table] is basically two computers in one, so we can actually project both screens on any TV that we want, so it allows us to have more of a dynamic learning environment–compared to last year, where we were stuck in a very tight space–wasn’t really ideal for that learning situation. We only like to have four or five students at a table at once, but because we have this, we’re able to do more. Students can look at the screen, while others are working on the table.”
The table was initially purchased in 2018 for $70,000 for the now-dissolved Master’s in Medical Sciences program, and had been sitting idly for years before the construction in N114 began over the summer.