MSc Medical Visualisation & Human Anatomy School of Innovation & Technology
Lisa Kilday
Hello! I’m Lisa Kilday, a doctor with a passion for medical imaging, anatomy education, and research. Having studied medicine and anatomy, I appreciate how challenging it can be to understand and retain high volumes of information. This is particularly challenging in anatomy, where we can’t always rely on physical models or prosections to fully visualise complex systems. Similarly, having worked as a doctor in the NHS for several years, explaining these systems or conditions to patients or other clinicians can be difficult without effective visual aids.
Medical Visualisation and Human Anatomy has given me the knowledge and resources to bridge this communication gap. To help undergraduate Diagnostic Radiography students learn radiographic anatomy of the lower limb, I created a fully immersive application for my dissertation research. This was developed in collaboration with the Blended Learning Team and Radiology department at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. RADIOGRAPHIC ANATOMY VR is the first Virtual Reality application designed specifically for undergraduate Diagnostic Radiography students which combines accurate 3D models, CT scans, and interactivity to teach and test anatomy.
Following this degree, I hope to continue working as a clinical specialist in the fields of image analysis and medical imaging research.
RADIOGRAPHIC ANATOMY VR
RADIOGRAPHIC ANATOMY VR is a fully immersive application designed specifically for undergraduate Diagnostic Radiography students to enhance radiographic anatomy learning. This application focuses on skeletal anatomy of the lower limb, including surface anatomy, anatomical planes, bony landmarks, and CT images. In this application, the user can interact with anatomically accurate 3D models and CT images. In user testing research, this application achieved high usability and perceived presence scores, and 1st year students achieved the same radiographic anatomy test results as more advanced students who learned from 2D content.
This is the first application developed for DR students which combines accurate 3D models, CT scans, and interactivity to teach and test anatomy. It is also the first anatomy application for DR students to have usability and sense of presence measured with validated questionnaires. As well as reaching a diagnostic radiography audience, this research will be presented to anatomists and educators at the Early Career Anatomists conference in late August 2024.
A significant limitation to this research was the significant difference in year group of radiography students between the VR and control groups. This meant that the efficacy of the application against 2D non-immersive content among all year groups could not be interpreted. In future developments, this could be resolved with a match-paired allocation in user testing and a larger number of participants. The application could also be enhanced by including more Meta XR interactions and a greater diversity of DICOM data to challenge more advanced students.
This collaborative project was created by Dr Lisa Kilday (MSc Medical Visualisation and Human Anatomy – Glasgow School of Art & University of Glasgow), supervised by Dr Matthieu Poyade (Glasgow School of Art – School of Innovation and Technology), Dr Jenny Clancy (University of Glasgow – School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Nursing), Thomas Welton (Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – Lead Practice Educator Radiology), Xinlin Chen (Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – Blended Learning Team) and Kelly Cassidy (Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – Blended Learning Team).
