UniServe*Science News, Vol. 5, November 1996
MedPics Image Library
Jenny Wilkinson is a Lecturer with the School of Biomedical Sciences,
Charles Sturt University.
About five minutes into using this package I was struck by how useful
it would have been in some recent lectures I had given on the cardiovascular
system. As I progressed through the rest of the CD all sorts of applications
came to mind - the sign of a truly useful piece of software. This CD contains
a series of images and text which cover the histology and pathology of each
major organ system of the body. There are sections dealing with the cardiovascular,
endocrine, gastrointestinal and reproductive systems. A third domain on
haematology is to be added in the future.
A title page with 3-4 learning objectives an a list of images provides a
menu for each system. Navigation is very easy and is based on forward/back
arrows or icons across the bottom of the screen. These display pictures
of organs, or if you want go back to the 'big picture', or title page, a
TV set.
Screens follow the same format with an image, title, pathological or histological
descriptions of the specimen and an icon to allow labels to be displayed.
One or more of these page features can be hidden when used for self-testing.
For example the user could test their diagnostic skills by hiding the title
and labels and using just the image to determine an appropriate title for
the specimen. In full quiz mode only the image is shown. While it is not
possible to permanently disable the titles and labels this is still a useful
review feature. The images themselves range from microscope sections to
photographs of gross anatomical specimens and line drawings. In general
the quality is very good particularly in the photographs. My only criticism
in this area was that some of the photomicrographs were unclear and of insufficient
magnification to be of much use. All images were labelled with their main
features, here there was a bit of inconsistency. Labelling varied from lines
to arrows and circling of relevant areas - this was fairly clear but there
seemed to be no consistent colour style. Sometimes lines were black other
times yellow or red, not a major fault, just a bit distracting. Two things
mar an otherwise excellent product. The first was the lack of scale bars
on the photomicrographs and the other was the grey overlays used as labelling
in a small number of images. These overlays totally obscured the image and
would have been better replaced by the outlining of areas (this was the
predominant way that large areas were indicated in images). The text accompanying
the images was clear and concise. In the pathology section this text was
made up of a pathology report followed by findings and impressions about
the specimens. Descriptions of histological features accompanied the histology
images.
Overall I was very impressed with this package and feel that it would be
useful for any student studying histology and/or pathology and needing a
overview of these areas. Being self-contained and so easy to use, this would
be highly suitable as a stand-alone teaching tools. I can see this being
a valuable addition to lab classes it could be used to supplement the 'live'
material or to show items that are hard to obtain. This CD certainly wasn't
what I had expected from the title - an image library. With objectives (simple,
but useful), explanatory text, and labelling this is more a teaching package
than a simple library of images.
Jenny Wilkinson
jwilkins@whealth.riv.csu.edu.au
MedPics Series: Images Library for Medical Education
- Histology and Pathology
Requirements: PC Windows:
386, 4MB RAM. Macintosh:
Cost: Histology $685 Pathology $685
both $1195
Supplier: MathStat Software, PO
Box 786, Mulgrave, Vic 3170 email: info@mathstat.com.au
URL: www.mathstat.com.au/
Tel: (03) 9562 2766 Fax: (03) 9561 5524
See also http://visiblep.com/medpic.html