UK's first virtual cadaver benefits medical students
Medical and anatomy students can investigate the human body by virtually dissecting it.
A life-size virtual cadaver - one of the first of its kind in the UK - is set to give a new dimension to doctors' training.
The Anatomage Table allows medical and anatomy students to investigate the human body by virtually dissecting it, and will be in use and on display at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Anatomy.
The table, which shows life-sized male and female bodies, has been created from CT scans allowing the body to be seen from all angles. Unlike the dissection of a real cadaver, where body parts can only be removed, students can add or remove organs, veins, arteries, nerves or tissue by touching the table, allowing those training to see how one part relates to another.
Anatomy teachers say that the table allows the body and the relationship of structures within it to be visualised in great detail.
The new device joins another modern teaching tool at the University’s Medical School – a life-sized 3D anatomical hologram, which is the largest of its kind in the world. The 3D image of a female body shows muscle structures, skeleton, internal organs, blood vessels and nerves.
Gordon Findlater, professor of translational anatomy, said: “The beauty of the Anatomage Table is that you can rotate and view the body in all three planes in a unique 3D experience. Although it will never, I believe, replace the experience of dissecting and handling a real cadaver, it will allow students to handle a virtual cadaver without all the legislation that accompanies the use of real cadavers. So far we have received a lot of good feedback from the students and surgeons who have tested it out.”
The Anatomage Table will be used in formal teaching sessions where appropriate and will also be available for the public to see and use, under supervision, when the University's Anatomy Museum is open to the public.
The BSAVA has opened submissions for the BSAVA Clinical Research Abstracts 2026.
