Developing Digital Resources for Anatomy Teaching Using Structured Light Scanning Technology: A Student and Educator Opinion-Based Study

The increased desire for high-quality digital resources for anatomy learning, coupled with the prominent decrease in anatomy teaching hours in most medical and anatomical curricula, has led to novel technological advances being explored in anatomy departments globally. Here, we describe the use of a light-based technique called structured light scanning (SLS) as a simple and easily adopted workflow for generating digital anatomical models. We demonstrate that the SLS technique is a suitable method for creating high-quality digital models of existing plastic anatomical models, as well as human and animal bones. These models can be made interactive and contain optional annotations to aid student interaction and learning. We also explore the student and educator views of these models. Selected models were delivered as part of a virtual anatomy education resource (VAER) and student and educator responses were collected with a Likert-type survey. Overall, the digital models produced via SLS were well received, and this positive feedback from both students and educators suggests implementing these into our existing anatomy curriculum. We recommend the use of SLS as an effective technique to develop virtual interactive models for anatomy teaching outside traditional laboratory spaces.