To evaluate student impressions of learning anatomy with mixed-reality and compare long-term information retention of female breast anatomy between students who learned with a mixed-reality supplement and their classmates who dissected cadavers.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has presented challenges for education worldwide, especially in medical schools that rely on cadaver-based dissection for anatomy. The advent of commercial mixed-reality (MR) technology, such as the HoloLens (Microsoft Corporation), offers new possibilities for anatomy education.1 At CaseWestern Reserve University (CWRU), the state of Ohio’s shelter in place order meant that students did not return from spring break in 2020, requiring an urgent modification to the anatomy curriculum, which has featured MR technology since 2018.2. We report our initial experience using MR to teach anatomy remotely to students located throughout North America.

The extent of medical knowledge increases yearly, but the time available for students to learn is limited, leading to administrative pressures to revise and reconfigure medical school curricula. The goal of the study was to determine whether the mixed reality platform HoloAnatomy® Software represents an effective and time-efficient modality to learn anatomy when compared to traditional cadaveric dissection.

As the amount of curricular material required of medical students increases, less time is available for anatomy; thus, methods to teach anatomy more efficiently and effectively are necessary. In this randomized controlled trial, researchers looked at the effectiveness of a mixed reality device to teach musculoskeletal anomy to medical students compared with traditional cadaveric dissection. 

Microsoft Hololens mixed reality technology offers students a novel modality to visualize clinically important anatomical structures, such as the breast, which are uniquely challenging to discern with the naked eye in traditional cadaveric dissection. In this study, a 3D anatomical model of the breast was developed and integrated it into a dynamic, educational module on the HoloLens. The educational outcomes and overall impressions of medical students learning breast anatomy through our module, as compared with traditional dissection are reported in the study.