Functional Assessment of Full‐body 3D Anatomy Apps in the App Stores
Authors: Hoffmann Darren S , Molian Vaelan A 
Published: June 2021

Rapid advances in 3D animation have resulted in proliferation of 3D anatomy applications (apps). In recent years, sales models for these software products have expanded to include the App Stores, where students can directly purchase and download educational anatomy products for a relatively low price, much cheaper than a typical anatomy atlas. Student knowledge of the quality of these apps is likely limited by lack of expertise, and faculty awareness of the potential utility of these apps is limited by lack of experience in a rapidly changing technology marketplace. These gaps point to a need for authoritative review of these technologies to answer the questions of our students (which apps should I get?) and the questions of our faculty (how might I use these apps as more than a supplementary resource?).

To address these questions, we reviewed the 3D anatomy Apps that are currently available for individual purchase in the App Stores with a scope of evaluating cost, content, quality of visuals, manipulation tools, presentation tools and overall usability. Searching “Anatomy” in the Microsoft store yielded 108 apps, and 82 apps in the Apple store. Selection criteria were used to focus on apps that (1) contained 3D visualizations, (2) allowed users to manipulate models and (3) contained multiple organ systems. These criteria filtered the list of apps to 9 PC apps and 9 Mac apps. Two reviewers evaluated all apps for the focus areas and compared findings to ensure validity.

Three vendors' products rose above the rest on every studied dimension. These top apps were available on both Mac and PC. One product had the most anatomy content including interactive movement demonstrations for many muscle groups and fascias of the body that were not included in any other products. Two vendors' products contained interactive quizzes to support independent study. Visual quality of the models from the three top vendors was comparable, but each had a unique aesthetic. All three had similar basic tools that students and faculty might use to explore (pan/rotate/zoom/hide/fade). For functions that would support faculty making presentations for live demonstration or distribution to a class, only two vendors' products enabled sharing of saved sessions. However, one product was the most sophisticated on this dimension since sharing could be done entirely within the app and recording of screen capture/audio was built in. From a usability perspective, the two most substantial products had similar issues – large numbers of objects, many functions and information on screen that easily became overwhelming. A third, less substantial product was the easiest app to work with without getting lost in the content.

The three top apps in this study contain many features that would be useful to students looking for independent study tools to support their anatomy learning. In addition, some of the apps provide features that faculty could use to create content to enhance in‐class lessons and distribute as exercises for at‐home study. The results of this study illustrate the versatile capability of these apps to support our courses and students' learning. Further work will be necessary to explore specific curriculum applications for these technologies.

Support or Funding Information

None

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.