Virtual cadaver gives Durham high school students a jump-start on healthcare careers

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- Laura Tuson's students at City of Medicine Academy are preparing for careers in the medical field by using a state-of-the-art tool that teaches them how to dissect a human body without the chemicals and smell of a normal cadaver.

The Durham Public Schools Career and Technical Education Department bought an Anatomage table that allows for the dissection of 3D virtual cadavers.

"This has four different cadavers, virtual cadavers, loaded on it, that are each a little bit different," said Laura Tuson, Health Science 1 Instructor. "Like all humans are different."

The table uses a seven-foot-long touchscreen system that can dissect every bone, muscle and organ to the smallest cell.

"When they go into medical school or they go into healthcare and are interacting with patients in the future, they won't be taken aback," said Tuson. "Oh, that doesn't look like the textbook! Because they are used to seeing it in different ways."

City of Medicine Academy is one of the first schools in the state to have an Anatomage table.

Tuson's students say they love being immersed in human anatomy and physiology by using the Anatomage table and believe it is giving them a jump-start on careers in healthcare.

The company that makes the table says human anatomy is reconstructed in accurate and dissectible 3D and allows for exploration and learning beyond what any cadaver can offer.