"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." -Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin had it right. The best way to learn a new skill is to practice. The Anatomage table is no different. Users are encouraged to give the table a try.

1. Toggle the power switch on the front of the Anatomage to turn the machine on. The startup usually takes a while so only toggle the switch once; the machine will turn on.
2. Once the machine is on, the system will automatically launch the Anatomage program. The Anatomage uses a Windows operating system. The interface is a standard Windows touch screen interface: 1 tap = single mouse click, 2 taps = double mouse click, 1 tap and hold = right-click.
3. Opening the program brings you to the Main Menu for the Anatomage program. Here is where you will choose what section you would like to explore; Gross Anatomy, Physiology, Case Library, etc. Anytime you are in an Anatomage section and would like to change to a different section, single tap on the Home button to return to the Main Menu and select a different section to explore.
4. Select Gross Anatomy to explore and dissect 4 real human cadavers. Select High-Res Regional Anatomy to view individual structures of the body in incredible detail. Select Physiology to view life-life physiology recreations and to explore the nerve pathways and other select pathways of the body. Select Case Library to view a database of 1000+ MRI and CT scans of real-life medical cases. Select Histology to view a collection of hundreds of stained histological sections from all tissue types and all segments of the body. Select Curriculum to view over 400 colored and labeled modules in both segmented anatomy and DICOM images. Select Prosection to view an interactive collection of images from real human cadavers.

1. To explore anatomy in 3D, select the Gross Anatomy section. Next, select the cadaver you would like to use. The Asian Female cadaver is the most detailed and is the best default choice. Highlight the cadaver of choice by tapping once to select from the cadaver list and tap Open. The cadavers take a lot of processing for the operating system to open and may take a couple minutes to load.
2.  The view that opens will show the entire body of the cadaver and the many tools that are at the user's disposal when exploring the cadaver. Take a minute to practice basic functions for changing the view. Swipe on the touchscreen with one finger to rotate the cadaver along any 3D plane. Swipe on the touchscreen with two fingers to reposition the body on the screen. Swipe two fingers away from each other to zoom in on the body. Swipe two fingers towards each other to zoom out on the body. Swipe two fingers on opposite ends of a circle to rotate the body along the plane of the screen. 
3. Once comfortable changing the view of the cadaver, practice removing structures of the body. Swipe the top slider bar at the bottom of the screen to the left to peel back layers from the cadaver. This is best for quickly removing large segments of the body. The bottom slider bar allows the user to control the number of branches of the cardiovascular, nervous, and lymphatic systems that are visible. Sliding to the left removes branches, sliding to the right adds branches.
4. Next, single tap the Explore Tool icon to open the Explore menu. In the Explore menu, select the Removal tool. The Removal tool allows the user to remove individual structures one-by-one. Simply highlight the Removal tool and tap on the desired structure to remove it from the view. This is more useful than the Slider bar when only a couple structures are needed to be removed. Once a structure is removed you will notice a new icon, the Remove icon, appear in the bottom right of the view. Single tapping this icon enables a split-screen with the removed structures appearing on the right side of the touchscreen. Tapping the Remove-List icon shows a list of the removed structures. Highlight the Remove-Sync icon and tap each individual structure to return it to the cadaver.
5. To individually select which structures to view on the screen, single tap the View icon. The View icon displays a list of all structures of the body sorted by organ system. To remove or add all structures of the body at once, single tap the blue check mark in the lower left region of the View menu. Single tap the organ systems to bring up a list of either the individual structures for smaller organ systems or a list of anatomical regions for larger organ systems. Either single tap the check next to the region of interest to view all structures in that region or single tap the region of interest to bring up a list of individual structures that can be viewed within that region. Single tap the check next to the individual structures to select or deselect them from the view.

Now that you have a basic understanding of how to navigate the Anatomage, see the features tab for more information and resources regarding all the table's features.

For further questions concerning the Anatomage Table or to schedule training, contact Joe Promes via email at joseph-promes@uiowa.edu or submit a request through the Contact Hardin webpage.

To reserve the Anatomage Table, click here

The Anatomage Table was purchased through the generous support of the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust.