UMass Medical School anatomist Dr. Yasmin Carter developed a new 3D complete female model using research publishing company Elsevier’s Complete Anatomy app, the first app on the platform. The app’s new 3D model of a woman is an important educational tool that clearly demonstrates the uniqueness of female anatomy.
Dr. Carter, an assistant professor of radiology in the Department of Translational Anatomy, is a leading expert on complete anatomical models of women. This role relates to her work on Elsevier’s Virtual Anatomy Advisory Board. Carter appeared in an Elsevier video about the model and was interviewed by Healthline and the Scripps Television Network.
“What you actually see in the tutorials and models is essentially what’s called ‘medicine bikini,’ meaning all the models are male except for the area that a bikini can cover,” she said.
Carter said that approach could have consequences. For example, women experience varying symptoms after long-term exposure to COVID-19, and women are 50% more likely to have heart attacks undiagnosed. Differences even in small things, such as the greater angle of support of women’s elbows, which can lead to more elbow injuries and pain, are ignored in models based on male anatomy.
The Complete Anatomy app is used by over 2.5 million registered customers worldwide. It is used by more than 350 universities around the world; The Lamar Suter Library is open to all students.
Carter also serves as the Director of Engagement and Scholarship for the UMass DRIVE initiative, which stands for Diversity, Representation and Inclusion in Educational Values, and is the theme group representative for Supporting Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Health and Equity in the Vista Curriculum. Integrate areas that have historically been unrepresented or underrepresented in graduate medical education.
Carter said she is interested in helping create better doctors through better education. “But I definitely continued to push the boundaries of lack of diversity,” she said.
Since 2019, Elsevier has exclusively featured female models on its platform, as women make up more than half of medical school graduates in the United States.
“What happens when you get to gender parity in the industry and we start to get to gender parity in medical education, I think that’s really important,” Carter said. “I hope that as we have more diverse medical specialties representing our patient populations, we will have a more diverse and inclusive medical education.”
“So in all freshman classes, we teach girls first and then boys,” she said. “It’s a small change, but teaching in women-focused classes sparks discussions in anatomy classes, with sex and gender-sensitive medicine, intersex people and diversity in anatomy now being discussed within half an hour.”
Post time: Mar-26-2024