Anatomage Table a Game Changer

Oaks Christian School has always been a leader in cutting-edge educational endeavors such as the IDEA Lab, with some of the best technology and tools available. Classes in engineering (mechanical, aeronautical, biomedical) and robotics are just a few offerings that give students a technological advantage.

The newest addition to the incredible resources at Oaks Christian is a brand new Anatomage table that will be used by the upcoming Health Sciences Institute, set to launch in fall 2024.

The Anatomage table is a virtual dissection table that effectively replaces the need for a cadaver lab. It is extremely rare for a high school to acquire such high-tech equipment. Oaks Christian’s table is housed in the IDEA Lab, which is also home to the engineering classes on campus. Anatomage tables are typically used in colleges and medical schools. The school was able to acquire the $120,000 table thanks to generous lead gifts from multiple donors.

“There are six bodies that were actual people who donated their bodies for science,” said Oaks Christian Director of Medical Services Dr. Bryan Wong. “While there is nothing that actually replaces working on actual tissue, the Anatomage is the next best thing.”

The images of the six bodies that are loaded on the Anatomage table are from men and women who passed away, and donated their bodies to science. A team of surgeons then took incredibly high-definition photos of the bodies and digitized them for use on the table.

The Anatomage table will also be used by the honors and AP anatomy and physiology courses offered at Oaks Christian. Dr. Jay Bayles, science faculty, has previous hands-on experience with Anatomage tables, and sees many ways it can be implemented at Oaks Christian.

“It brings a whole new outlook to the class,” Bayles said. “I've always wanted a cadaver lab since I started here 18 years ago, but we’ve never really had the space for it. This is a game changer in that it allows us to basically have a cadaver program without having real bodies that need to be replaced annually.”

Anatomage tables are used worldwide in teaching hospitals, medical schools and graduate schools. Within the table, there are not only the cadavers themselves, but also case studies that show how body parts and systems (circulatory, respiratory, nervous, etc.,) work in tandem, as well as functions of the body in action. One example is a pregnancy case study, which shows an expectant mother with a child in her womb, and how the reproductive system grows and nurtures the child. There is also a simulation of a live birth.

Along with the advantages of having virtual cadavers to open and study the interior of the body, the Anatomage table also offers the chance to put the students’ knowledge to the test against other high schools. There are competitions where schools send anatomy students to compete against each other. It is a way to gamify learning and make it more contextually interesting to students. Dr. Wong and Bayles see the advantages of the competition and hope to implement it in the future. A few Southern California schools already have teams that compete.

Reese Henrich, freshman, will be entering the Health Sciences Institute next year and is currently in the Intro to Health Sciences course that Dr. Wong teaches. Henrich hopes to become a surgeon. She sees the Anatomage table as an incredible resource for her future endeavors.

“I think the Anatomage table is amazing,” Henrich said. “It is a lifelike cadaver without the ‘gross parts’ as some might say. I think it is such a cool thing as a high schooler to be able to learn on this piece of technology. I am not even in college yet, and I will already have hands-on experience with what feels like a cadaver.”

While both Dr. Wong and Bayles don’t expect the tables to fully make cadaver labs obsolete, they believe that the idea of a virtual cadaver lab will become more and more accessible to high school and college students who are beginning to form an interest in the medical field.

“The Health Sciences Institute will give me an incredible opportunity to specialize my education early on,” Henrich said. “The Anatomage table will give me a leg up in my chosen occupation and greatly prepare me for the next step in that process.”