The Visible Human database of anatomic sections and their corresponding diagnostic images, offers medical teaching faculty an extremely valuble resource for instructional content. Particularly valuable are the motion-artifact free magnetic resonance images with images arising from multiple pulse sequences ­ a perfectly registered image set nearly impossible to obtain because of extended acquisition time in the clinical setting. The challenge in multimedia instruction is taking maximal advantage of the dataset while linking and enhancing it with local content.

The most meaningful local content that can be added to the extensive Visible Human data are anatomic or physiologic images that represent naturally occuring biologic motion. In addition, instructional designers still must consider the critical cognitive role played by thoughtfully designed graphic illustrations that serve to simplify and reduce to generalizable concepts certain principles of anatomic structure.

At Yale we have used the Visible Human images extensively in both CD-ROM and World Wide Web-based teaching programs. In our gross anatomy, neuroanatomy and neurology courses, the Visible Human images form an ideal complement to conventional cadaver dissections. Particular attention was paid to pairing medical image motion sequences from ultrasound and angiography with relevant Visible Human images in each publication dealing with normal and abnormal diagnostic imaging. Stills and motion sequences from additional medical imaging tools such as angiography and ultrasound adds valuable content to the Visible Human data.

Acknowledgments

References

Jaffe CC, Lynch PJ.: Educational Challenges. Radiologic Clinics N. Am. 34(3): 629-46, May 1996