Need to study anatomy? There's an app for that

Now there's an app for that.

Scientists, students, doctors and patients can now study the human body, evaluate medical problems and analyze three-dimensional images from their iPhone, using new applications created by University of Utah researchers, available from Apple Inc.'s iTunes App Store.

ImageVis3D Mobile, AnatomyLab and MyBody are all applications created by U. researchers and put on the open market to benefit people.

ImageVis3D Mobile and a desktop application called ViSUS "help people visualize and manipulate large amounts of image data," particularly biomedical images, such as CT or MRI scans, said Chris Johnson, director of the university's Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute.

More than 500 of the apps were downloaded in the first 11 days of availability last month.

"It was not very long ago that you could only do this on high-end graphics workstations," he said. "We created the software that enabled 3-D visualizations to be done on laptops and desktops — and now even on the iPhone." An iPhone version of ViSUS is expected in the near future, which will allow for manipulation of large-scale photographs from the user's hand.

Biology professor Mark Nielsen said AnatomyLab, an idea that was born out of his anatomy textbook and accompanying DVD series, is meant for students and teachers, but "a lot of medical professionals are buying it because they can show it to their patients on the spot and clarify injuries or problems they are discussing with them about their body."

The app allows a user to dissect a cadaver in 40 levels, starting with the skin and proceeding through subcutaneous tissue, nerves, veins, muscles and so on.

"There's no substitute for real dissection, but a lot of students in the undergraduate world don't have access to cadavers in an anatomy lab," Nielsen said. "So we tried to provide them with a realistic lab setting on their phone."

Since the $9.99 AnatomyLab app went on sale in July, about 3,300 copies have been sold. MyBody, which Nielsen calls "a watered-down version of AnatomyLab for the general public," went on sale for $1.99 in August.

Nielsen is working on a third iPhone application that he says will "help people learn the muscular system in the body."

The apps enable modern technology to help doctors explain medical issues at a patient's bedside, enable students to study and help the average patient better understand his or her own body.

"There may be a lot of people who are not computer-savvy but love their iPhone, so getting it into the App Store allows it to be seen by a much larger market," said Tom Fogal, a software developer at the U.'s SCI. He helped to develop the original ImageVis3D Mobile as part of a biomedical computing project funded by the National Institutes of Health. The iPhone version was developed by a German computer scientist who formerly worked as an adjunct faculty member at the U.

e-mail: wleonard@desnews.com