The potential of computerized representations of anatomy in the training of health care providers

The purpose of anatomy education is to develop the skills for anatomical reasoning, which is a requirement for performing a number of clinical tasks. Anatomical reasoning integrates an understanding of the three-dimensional (3-D) geometry of the body and its parts (the spatial domain of anatomical information) with an understanding of functional, developmental, pathological, and other relationships among anatomic entities (the symbolic domain of anatomical information). Traditional methods in anatomy have substantial shortcomings for representing and integrating these two information domains. Computer-based methods of knowledge representation have a great potential for overcoming the shortcomings and for promoting anatomical reasoning. To realize this potential, there is a need for (1) establishing 3-D electronic atlases of the human body; (2) generating models of symbolic anatomical information, and (3) developing computer programs (user interfaces) that integrate these knowledge sources and serve the needs of trainees and practitioners in different fields of the health sciences. The Digital Anatomist Program at the University of Washington has begun to build such a client-server framework for anatomical information, and its application for biomedical education is being evaluated.