Anatomage Table

At Bishop Montgomery, students of all grade levels now have one of the most advanced technological tools at their fingertips. The school’s new Anatomage Table, touted as the world’s most technologically advanced anatomy visualization system, offers dissectible human and animal cadavers reconstructed in precise 3D. The device allows students to gain a more comprehensive understanding of anatomy, pathology, and even surgical planning. 

Unveiled this year at Bishop Montgomery, the table is used across a spectrum of classes on campus including Health, Biology/Honors Biology, Anatomy and Physiology/Honors Anatomy and Physiology, and Sports Medicine. Bishop Montgomery is just one of 40 high schools in the world to have an Anatomage Table, and one of a few in the state of California. Only a handful of California four-year universities have an Anatomage Table for their science and medical programs. 

The table is pre-loaded with three human cadavers, two males and a female, which were created from real cadavers. It also has animal cadavers including dog, cat, bird, turtle, and mouse, and all provide life-size modeling of the muscular, skeletal, vascular, nervous and other systems. With these cadavers, the device offers gross anatomy cases, high resolution regional anatomy cases, and more than 1,000 pathological examples. The table can also show MRI and CT scans.

With a life-size touch screen experience (the 3D cadavers lie under a touchscreen on an operative table form that can lie flat or be positioned vertically), the table is fully interactive and responds to finger touches, taps, and swipes, like any tablet. Using fingers or a stylus, students can rotate the 3D cadavers, zoom in and out, perform scalpel cuts and dissections, tap away body parts to view underlying systems, and view the human body and its structures from endless angles.

“The Anatomage Table is a game-changer for our STEM program here at Bishop Montgomery. Students now have the opportunity to not just visualize, but actually interact with, anatomical systems and structures,” says Anatomy and Physiology teacher and Science Department chairperson Carrie Rey. “In a recent lesson on the skeletal system, instead of just looking at bones on their Chromebooks and holding samples in their hands, our students at the table seeing how the cadaver’s real bones fit into the skeletal system, exploring the supporting ligaments and surrounding muscles, and practicing some of the surgeries that could repair those bones. The support that this table contributes to our science and STEM curriculum and our lab sessions is truly incredible.”

Students who are interested in careers in medicine, like Olivia Pilon ’19, believe the table provides an education far beyond what traditional classroom instruction can offer. "Anatomage makes it so much easier to see where in the body everything is and how all of the structures relate to each other," she explains. "For example, learning about connective tissue in the wrist is hard when there's not somewhere you can point and say 'Oh, that's the connective tissue.' With the table, we bring up one of the cadavers, zoom in on the forearm, and open the wrist to explore the structures inside of it. The connective tissue is right there in front of me, as large as I want to make it and all in high resolution." 

In addition to the scientific and technological edge that Bishop Montgomery’s Anatomage Table offers its students, it also places BMHS as a technology leader in the community. “We look forward to establishing partnerships with our local medical professionals and institutions,” says Honors Biology teacher Lisa Walle. “Bishop Montgomery is excited to provide them access to our table so that they can continue to expand their knowledge and treatment of the human body. In return, we look forward to the opportunities these relationships can provide our students as they explore college majors and careers in medicine under the guidance of experts and mentors."

Thank you to all of the donors in our Bishop Montgomery community who gifted this amazing tool to our students and to their continued learning!

Learn more about what Anatomage can do in this BMHS student-made video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZSq32wFxAo&feature=em-share_video_user