Review of "Anatlab: The Anatomy Lab"

Introduction

Program Contents

• The lower limb
• The upper limb
• The head and neck
• The abdomen and thorax

Each of the sections include a small amount of text on each screen, illustrated with line diagrams or photographs. Within the first screen or two of the section a set of learning objectives are set out. The diagrams and photographs are labelled. Occasionally an orientation button is available to show where this structure fits into the wider anatomy. Some sections have a short piece of video of a dissection of that specific structure which aid understanding of the anatomy described.

Certain anatomical terms within the text box appear as buttons which, when clicked on speak the word to aid pronunciation. This along with the text does not really suffer from the Americanisation which are inherent in some programs when introduced to the European market.
 

Progress within sections is by clicking continue or reverse buttons, with occasional boxes within the text area for student completion.

A help button is available throughout the program however this is not "context sensitive", and provides general guidance on the use of the program rather than any help with the particular section being viewed.

Video is used appropriately with short clips pointing out particular structures and in some cases illustrating the dissection.

At the end of each section a review which includes questions relating to specific anatomical parts, covered in that section. These consist of typing in the names of parts shown on diagrams or photographs from given list - feedback is then given. Care is needed with this as a slight spelling error invalidates the answer.

Navigation within the program is generally fairly clear after a short amount of use. One minor problem is the need to click "quit" to return from a specific section to the main menu.

Installation & Requirements;

Display needs to be set to 16-Bit colour and 640x480 or 800x600 pixels otherwise the colour scheme is poor and the video clips are poor quality.

The program is designed to also run on the Macintosh and Windows 3.1 although I hear there are some problems with the Win 3.1 version.

Conclusion

Price:

Distributor;