AnatomyLab (v.1.0) is an app made by AnatomyLab.com Inc and costs $9.99. It walks you through a complete dissection of a male cadaver. In the field of anatomy review, there seem to be an ever increasing number of applications in the App Store.  AnatomyLab hopes to differentiate itself with its unique approach to gross anatomy learning.  This review will discuss some of the novel teaching methods employed by this this Anatomy medical app.

Any physician that has gone through medical school can tell you about their first experience in the cadaver lab. Generally, the learning curve is steep during gross anatomy and often times your cadaver lab experience lasts only a few short months. This app will brings those experiences back and if you’re lucky enough to find this app before classes start, it will help guide you through those experiences.

Pros:

Wow! This app is real. There is only so much an artist’s rendition can show, and this app goes the extra mile by bringing you a true, full human dissection. It may take some time to familiarize yourself with the features of this app, but it’s well worth it.

For example, when viewing the dissection, double clicking highlights your anatomy of interest. Then, you can click on the “info” button, causing extra information about your highlighted anatomy to show. Some of the extra information shown is: muscle origin, insertion, actions, blood supply and innervation. In this menu you can also edit a custom user “notes” section in order to manually add more information about your anatomy of interest. This app is easier to use than an anatomy atlas, flash card, or dissector manual, and in fits in the palm of your hand.

Cons:

For now, just a male cadaver, so if you had hopes of seeing an ovary or uterus, no luck here. Also, it doesn’t include brain anatomy (no explaining to Bobby Boucher where exactly that medulla oblongata is).

Navigating through dissection layers is supposed to be made easier by using gestures (for example, a two finger swipe up or down dissects up or down), however, too often when I’m attempting to go up a layer, I end up scrolling on the current image instead. Maybe I just need to practice my two finger swipes. I’d rather be able to hold down on the layer label located in the top left of the screen in order to scroll up or down different layers of anatomy.

Conclusion:

Initially, I was not a fan of the navigation (you can probably tell from above, and initially this bullet was listed in the cons section). When you first open the app you’re greeted by some helpful hints about buttons and gestures, and then the “enter AnatomyLab” button brings up a list of different layers to view (refer to pictures). These layers start out labeled plainly, “skin, hypodermis, etc…” however it soon becomes less descriptive, “muscles and vessels” have 13 layers, with no difference in naming besides “muscles and vessels 4” vs “muscles and vessels 13”. Initially, I thought this lack of detailed description could cause some confusion.

After further use though, I realized that like in real life, you see different views of the same anatomy in multiple layers. This application replicates the real life experience of gross anatomy. Underneath the layer selector you get a very detailed explanation of what they dissected through to get to the current view, basically walking you through the entire dissection.

Once you actually click on the “view cadaver” button, this app comes to life. You can zoom and drag as you would expect. On top of that, you finally get access to the “search mode” button, enabling you to search by body part.

When I realized this app is more geared towards helping you through a dissection, rather than being just an anatomy atlas, I found myself enjoying it much more. The greatness of this application is the extra information it gives and this is something a simple atlas can’t even beat.

Who should buy this app?

• This app is priceless for any student taking anatomy & physiology, especially with a lab (which makes good sense considering it’s named, “AnatomyLab”).
• Surgeons, pathologists or any other person that deals with anatomy on a daily basis.
• Students or interns who are rotating onto a surgical service.

Will I use this very often during clinical rotations or in practice? Probably not, but I’ll definitely use and enjoy the heck out of it when I need to review anatomy.

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Speed Bones MD (v.1.2) is an app that helps you practice and memorize skeletal anatomy. It’s very similar to to Speed Muscles MD (v1.1), except with a skeletal focus. You can check out the Speed Muscles MD review by scrolling below or clicking here (The reviews are similar). This app allows you to rapidly review skeletal structures in an entertaining fashion. You can use it to practice or you can use it to compete with friends in game mode. This is the full version, which costs 99 cents, as compared to the free Speed Bones Lite app. I’ll detail the difference in the full and lite versions later in this review.

Advantages:

*Good way to practice your anatomy on the go.

*Zoom feature is great(refer to picture)

*Particularly useful for memorizing the wrist(trapezium, lunate, etc) , ankle bones (calcaneus, cuneiform,etc), and vertebra structures. These can be found in levels 3,4,8,9, and 11.

*Biggest advantage of the full version vs. Lite is you have access to key head and neck skeletal structures, such as where some Cranial Nerves exit in the skull (key for gross anatomy practicals)

*Game mode makes it fun to practice, allows you to compete with friends, and also review the bones you missed.

*18 different levels, anywhere between 5 to 17 bones per level.

*Nicely priced at 99 cents, compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch.

Improvements that could be made:

*An option to slow the time limit given per bone, especially in practice mode

*Label the different levels by skeletal groups, instead of numerically. This would make practice mode a lot easier.

*Possible integration with key blood vessels

Who this app would be great for:

*Medical Students, PA students, nursing students.

*Graduate students learning anatomy.

*College students and High School students learning anatomy.

Conclusion:

Again, I mentioned this for the Muscles MD app, I wish I had this app available when I was a first year medical student. In particular, the wrist, ankle, and vertebra bones are reviewed extensively, which is great because they can be the most difficult to remember. I don’t think this app replaces netters flash cards, but I think its great for when you’re doing your musculoskeletal block of gross anatomy. I think this app will be of biggest utility to college and high school students, but at the same time definitely help with gross anatomy on a graduate school level. For medical students I’d also recommend the Michigan anatomy site. Doctors, PA’s, nurses might also want to get this app for fun(game mode), its funny in a bit of a sad way to see how much gross anatomy you’ve forgotten (hahaha). Overall, I’d definitely have to recommend this app to the above people, at this price its a steal. You can find the app in the App Store here. The developer’s website is here: http://speedanatomy.blogspot.com

Paid vs. Light Version: You get seven more levels with the Paid version of the app. With the paid version you also get the key bones in the head/neck that you need to know for Cranial Nerve anatomy.

Practice Mode: Refer to Speed Muscles MD review.

Zoom feature: The zoom feature allows you to be more precise when picking a bone. If you hold your finger to an area on the screen it will magnify (refer to picture), allowing you to correctly select the bone. I thought this feature was definitely helpful, although it would have been nice to use the native iPhone zoom capability as well.

Speed Muscles MD is an app that helps you practice and memorize muscle anatomy. It provides a way to rapidly review the muscles in an entertaining fashion. It can actually be played as a game, which I thought was a nice twist.  This review will cover the features of this medical application.

Advantages:

• Good way to practice your anatomy while you are on the go.
• Game mode makes it fun to practice, allows you to compete with friends, and also review the muscles you missed.
• Superficial and Deep muscles are included.
• 15 different levels, with 8 to 13 muscles per group.
• Particularly useful for memorizing arm and leg muscles.
• Nicely priced at $2.99, compatible with iPod Touch and iPhone
• Zoom Feature (below picture)

Improvements that could be made:

• An option to slow the time limit given per muscle, especially in practice mode
• Label the different levels by muscle groups, instead of numerically
• A more detailed picture of hands and feet
• Possible integration with ligaments

Who this app would be great for:

• Medical students, college students or high school students learning anatomy.

Conclusion:

I wish I had this app available during gross anatomy when I was a first year medical student. It would have been a nice way to study on the go. I don’t think this app replaces netters flash cards, but I think its great for when you’re doing your musculoskeletal block of gross anatomy. I think this app will be of biggest utility to college and high school students, but at the same time definitely help with gross anatomy on a medical school level. Doctors or PA’s might also want to get this app for fun(game mode), its funny in a bit of a sad way to see how much gross anatomy you’ve forgotten (hahaha). Overall, I’d definitely have to recommend this app to the above people, at this price its a steal. You can get the app at this link from the app store. The website for the app can be found here http://speedanatomy.blogspot.com.

Further Review:

Levels: There are 15 different levels, each level has 8 to 13 muscle that you need to identify. There are 2 diffent methods to use this app, Game mode and Practice mode. In game mode you need to get 50% of the muscles correct before you can proceed to the next level. There are also points assigned to the muscles you answer correctly, and you are given the option to enter high scores. At the end of game mode there is an option to review the muscles you missed, which is a great idea.

Practice Mode: I think this app really shines in practice mode. You can select which level you want to play (1 -15), and practice on that particular group of muscles. The first two levels are shots of the front and back portions of the body, and you are asked superficial muscles. The app then gets more detailed, with muscle features from the face, neck, chest, back, arms, and legs. There are 3 levels dedicated just for the arms and it gets detailed as well, such as hitting all the flexor muscles in the arms (carpi ulnaris, pollicis brevis, crapi radialis, pollicis longus, digitorum superficialis, etc).

Deeper muscles: After I did the first two levels (superficial muscles), I was skeptical at first because it labeled the hamstring as one muscle, but then I realized the app gets a lot more detailed. For example, in level 12 (refer to picture), you can see how the hamstring muscles are then individually asked (semitendinosus, semimembranosus and the biceps femoris). This type of side by side look, where superficial and deeper muscles are tested is repeated throughout the app.

Zoom feature: The zoom feature allows you to be more precise when picking a muscle. If you hold your finger to an area on the screen it will magnify (refer to picture), allowing you to correctly select the muscle. I thought this feature was definitely helpful, although it would have been nice to use the native iPhone zoom capability as well.

[itunes]

[website]