NCH Healthcare System's Simulation Center has a piece of technology that allows doctors, nurses, and staff members to analyze human cadavers in a unique, high definition way without the physical body in front of them. It's called an Anatomage Table.
The massive piece of technology runs for $80,000-85,000. It helps educate and train the medical staff at NCH Healthcare System's Judith & Marvin Herb Family Simulation Center.
The Simulation Tech Specialist said data and detailed images from four real human cadavers are stored inside.
"They were all real at one time. All live, living people. One died of leukemia. One died of a heart issue. One was a death row inmate. Died of lethal injection and donated his body. And she died of pneumonia,” Julio Irizarry said.
He said each depiction of the body is so detailed, you can peel back layers to see muscles, bones, nerves, and blood flow.
"When they passed away, they did a full body MRI, then they cryogenically froze the body into a block of ice. And there's a machine that they lay them down on that takes a one millimeter sliver from head to toe. So for every sliver, a picture is taken, and another sliver and a picture is taken, all the way until there's nothing left of the body," Irizarry said.
The Anatomage Table can be used to train medical staff on a variety of things, from identifying different anatomy, to talking about placements of stents and pacemakers. Irizarry said the table is a good tool to teach hand placement for CPR.
"We can literally show how you would count down to the area where you want to be on that sternum," he said.
Irizarry said doctors often use the Anatomage Table during lectures to nurses or other staff members. He said eventually, they'll also allow people in the community to use it to get a better idea of how our anatomy works.
