The
world around us is filled with objects and structures that have 3 dimensions,
X, Y, & Z coordinates, we say in geometric terms. From a baby's earliest
viewing of its mother's face and hands, to a child's learning that the
Sun is a round celestial body in the sky, all animals experience Life
in 3D. Viewing our own bodies and all humans in 3D is the most natural
method. Learning the detailed structures of the body, the study of human
anatomy, has always been done best using cadavers, as compared with
drawings, even with those that are shadowed to give the perception of
the third dimension. Surgeons must dissect and repair organs and tissues
of the body, and must perceive the structures in 3D for the best result.
This
imperative led Professor
Robert A.Chase, Surgeon-Anatomist at Stanford University,
to seek using computer graphics for creating 3D images for learning
human anatomy. His Electric cadaver was the first such effort. The development
of CT and MRI technologies led in the 1970's to images of the body in
many planes for viewing regions of clinical interest.
Such images are used today for making 3D models useful in pre-surgical
planning. But nearly a decade ago, as these imaging methods were emerging,
the identity of organs and tissues visualized by them was uncertain.
This fact prompted Professor Chase to section the pelvic region of a
female cadaver to confirm for his scientist colleague, Chris
Constantinou, PhD in the Department of Urology, the anatomic
arrangement of the pelvic floor muscles being visualized in MR images.
Thereafter, the slice images were used sparingly in anatomy discussion-classes
to elaborate the concept of 3D organ models that students were required
to build in their minds from many sources of information. The human
female pelvis is a body region that challenges anatomists and surgeons
to integrate an intricate set of structures into a conceptual 3D model.
For teaching gynecological surgery to medical students and resident
physicians in Gynecology and Obstetrics, Professor
Wm. LeRoy Heinrichs could use cadavers for teaching normal
anatomy, but those with pathological anatomy were very scarce. He was
searching for improved teaching tools beyond the usual videotapes and
diagrams of pathological organs, muscles, and supporting ligaments and
fascias. Finding the underutilized slices in the Division of Anatomy,
and the skilled expertise of Dr.
Parvati Dev and colleagues in SUMMIT (Stanford University
Medical Media and Information Technologies) was a bonanza. Professor
Heinrichs dedicated over a year of personal time to learn and make 3D
models using emerging software made available by Wm.
Lorensen, PhD at General Electric Corporation. This set of models
he called Lucy 2.0, the namesake of Lucy, the first hominid biped of
over three millennia ago (Institute
of Human Origins). From the slices of the Stanford Visible Female,
Dr. Heinrichs created Lucy 2.0 as the first digital female. Soon thereafter
came the Visible Human Male and Female sponsored by the National
Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
