PHILADELPHIA – The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania today announced the launch of a new collaboration to offer online 3D anatomy courses to students worldwide. The courses have been developed in collaboration with Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, and Sharecare Reality Lab, a digital health company that provides visual solutions for health care.
Penn’s anatomy faculty developed the course content using images from Elsevier’s benchmark Netter Atlas of Human Anatomy, Gray’s Anatomy for Students, Larson’s Human Embryology and Sharecare Reality Lab’s sophisticated digital 3D-anatomic simulations.
“Penn has been a pioneer in the use of digital media in medical education for more than 20 years. We were one of the first medical schools to provide online streaming of its entire curriculum. The new courses further Penn’s vision of a school without walls,” said Gail Morrison, MD, senior vice dean for Education in the Perelman School of Medicine. “Along with the prestige of our brand and our phenomenal teachers, we will continue to create innovative ways to educate online as we move into teaching the next generation of students embarking on medical careers.”
The idea for Penn’s paid course offerings began three years ago when Penn was among other medical schools that provided free courses known as MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). One of Penn’s offerings was an anatomy course on the upper limb called ‘Going out on a Limb,’ which attracted more than 39,000 students. Feedback from the enrollees requested similar courses on the other areas of human anatomy.
“This collaboration provides an opportunity to share high-quality images and high-level anatomy content with students worldwide who may not have the time or access to medical courses but have the willingness to learn,” said Linda Belfus, senior vice president for Content, Elsevier Clinical Solutions.
Two courses will be offered in October 2016: The Thorax, with nine hours of lecture, will launch on Oct. 11, 2016, and will cost $115; and The Embryology of the Heart and Lung, with five hours of lecture,will launch on Oct.18, 2016 and will cost $55. Each course will be open for eight weeks. Upon completion of each course, students will be eligible to receive a certificate of completion from the Perelman School of Medicine. Courses on the abdomen, pelvis, back, extremities, and brain will be available in 2017.
“The YOU(R) platform from Sharecare Reality Lab makes the anatomy courses very unique, providing learners with the ability to see, in three dimensions, living organs and how the human body functions physiologically,” said Lawrence Kiey, president of Sharecare Reality Lab, part of the Sharecare family.
“Sharecare Reality Lab’s collaboration with the Perelman School of Medicine is changing the way people learn. By making anatomy visual, we are improving one’s overall understanding of how the body functions. Something you can never get from a cadaver,” Morrison said.
For additional information on Penn’s online anatomy courses, visit https://pennmedonline.upenn.edu/.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.