A Must-Have App for Anatomy & Physiology Students

What bothers me about anatomy & physiology lectures is that there’s so much information being presented that it’s impossible to grasp everything in the first go-around. Fortunately technology has given us access to a lot of remarkable resources that can help us make sense of it all.

One of my favorite and most-used iPad apps is Anatomy & Physiology REVEALED. I used it almost daily last semester during A&P 2, which was primarily physiologic processes and mechanisms that needed to be explained visually.

There are two versions: a full version for $49.99 and single-module versions for $12.99 each.

Anatomy and Physiology Revealed iPad app

The full version contains access to all of the modules:

  • Skeletal and muscular systems
  • Nervous system
  • Cardiovascular, lymphatic, and respiratory systems
  • Integumentary, digestive, urinary, reproductive, and endocrine systems
  • Body orientation, tissues, and cells and chemistry

Some of the key features include high-quality human cadaver images blended together with a layering technique that lets you peel away layers of the human body to reveal more than 5,000 structures. In addition, you’ll be able to explore interactive histology slides to learn microscopy anatomy of tissues. This past semester has given me a new appreciation for histology, so I recommend exploring this part of the app even if you’re not required to use slides.

For radiography students, the app includes labeled x-ray, MRI, and CT images to help you visualize and learn internal structures from an imaging perspective. I admittedly haven’t spent a lot of time looking at these yet, so if they don’t blow you away, I’m sorry.

The most useful part of this app (at least for me) is its library of videos and animations. I can read about a process over and over, but I need to see the mechanism for it to actually stick. The videos were especially valuable during the cardiovascular and respiratory chapters. Pressure gradients make my brain turn to mush.

Anatomy and Physiology Revealed iPad app

Some smaller, yet convenient features include quizzes that test your ability to identify anatomical structures and audio pronunciations.

As I said, the full version of the app is $49.99 but it’s well worth the money and it’ll help you all throughout your A&P classes — probably even beyond. There’s also an online version that students can purchase access to. I haven’t done this so I can’t tell you much about it. You can learn more about it here.

P.S. There’s also a version for Android.

Forgive the Radio Silence

I learned an important lesson this past summer: don’t start a new blog while taking calculus. Over the summer semester — which is eight weeks long by the way — I took Anatomy & Physiology I and pre-calculus. I followed that up with Anatomy & Physiology II and calculus in the fall. Hence the lack of posts on this here blog.

My A&P courses were fantastic, and I can’t wait to share some interesting fun facts and study tips with you all. Calculus, on the other hand, was a nightmare. I’m not mathematically inclined, but two semesters of calc helped me discover a new-found appreciation for algebra. Oh, how I miss solving for x!

But I’m not here to rant about sine and cosine. Consider this my warm-up post. I hope to spend a lot more time writing here in 2015, especially since I’ll (hopefully) be starting a brand new bachelors program in August to become a radiography technician. In the meantime, tune in soon for posts about autopsy seminars, must-hear medical podcasts, and more!

Celebrate Skull Appreciation Day With A DIY Skeleton Toy

Did you know that yesterday was Skull Appreciation Day? Why is this you may ask? It’s because Skull-A-Day (one of my favorite anatomy-themed websites, by the way) launched on June 4, 2007. And thus, every June 4th has been dubbed Skull Appreciation Day by its fans.

To honor this momentous occasion, the awesome people behind Skull-A-Day have shared this wonderful DIY skeleton toy that you can print out and create at home. There’s some assembly required — you can download the instructional PDF here.

jumpingjack