London, England, May 5, 2020 – Primal Pictures, creator of the world’s most medically accurate three-dimensional model of human anatomy and part of the Informa Pharma Intelligence division, has partnered with Curiious, the Australia-based Immersive Learning Company, to create Primal VR, a virtual reality anatomy tool.
Primal VR provides the world’s most comprehensive and accurate 3D anatomy experience within a fully interactive, device-agnostic VR environment for academic institutions and healthcare environments around the globe.
The University of Adelaide became the first institution in the world to provide the product to students when the first module was piloted in 2019. Since then, VR lessons at the university have achieved unprecedented 100 percent engagement levels.
Enabling immersive education for improved outcomes
Primal Pictures undertook an extensive search to find the right Virtual Reality partner to develop an immersive learning tool utilising Primal’s best-in-class 3D anatomical model.
“We were looking for a partner who could provide that expertise, and they [Curiious] have an amazing reputation,” said Lorna Wilson, Head of Product at Primal Pictures. “I’d heard about the Curiious platform,then when we met the team, we realised their approach to VR ft perfectly with our goals for bringing our interactive solutions into the immersive space.”
Brett Heil, founder of Curiious, said Primal VR will further establish VR as the next stage in the evolution of education, offering students and educators high- definition and fully immersive experiences that support greater efficacy in learning.
“We will always ensure the experiences we create are designed to optimise outcomes for our end users which, in the education space, are ultimately going to be students and teachers” said Heil. “The partnership with Primal Pictures means we’re combining skill sets to deliver a comprehensive and expert-driven offering.”
With around 2,000 educational institutions globally already using Primal Pictures 3D anatomy products on desktop PCs, laptops, and mobile devices, Lorna believes the combined offering will enable those institutions to now move seamlessly into the VR space.
“Laboratories are expensive to run, cadavers are in short supply and medical props are expensive,” said Lorna. “Primal VR will reduce that burden and provide the perfect reference to accompany dissections.”
Primal VR allows participants to walk 360 degrees around the model and select, scale and rotate each structure in ways not previously possible. Further, educators and students can highlight individual structures to hear pronunciation and explore detailed contextual information.
“Proficiency is best enabled through repetition, but the use of cadavers and props, while essential, understandably limits the potential for repeat lessons,” said Heil. “With Primal VR, an immersive environment can be repeated over and over again with no disposable resources,” he said.
“Students at the University of Adelaide have had access to the most comprehensive anatomy offering available, and the faculty is seeing incredible engagement results,” added Heil.
University of Adelaide first in the world to offer Primal VR content within curriculum
Primal VR was piloted with the University of Adelaide in 2019 for the first Virtual Reality classes delivered by Adelaide Health Simulation (AHS). Prior to the pilot, the immersive teaching and learning tool was rigorously vetted, advised on, and approved by an expert panel of anatomists and curriculum advisers.
Primal VR has been made available to students at the state-of-the-art Adelaide Health Simulation Centre, the most technologically advanced simulation facility in Australasia and the only Australian simulation facility accredited with the Society for Simulation in Healthcare for excellence in learning and teaching.
According to Adam Montagu, Director, Adelaide Health Simulation, the University had been looking for an innovative and engaging VR platform to bring into the AHS, but options often offered imagery and interactivity that was simply not of a suitable standard for high quality anatomy teaching at a tertiary level.
“Our Centre is always looking for ways to increase student and educator engagement, support experiential and contextual learning, and deliver diversified learning experiences,” said Montagu. “Curiious’ approach to technology meets those aims, and once they partnered with Primal Pictures, we knew we would have access to experiences of a higher quality than were provided elsewhere. We need to teach students with an accurate representation of human anatomy, not cartoonish images.”
Since the platform has been made available to students, the course has received 100 percent engagement levels. Students can zoom into everything from the tiniest nerves to the most detailed vascular systems using the University’s own VR equipment and can undertake a full 360-degree exploration of the entire body within the virtual space.
“Lecturers are able to see in real time what the student is looking at within the environment and teach lessons live,” said Montagu. “The level of detail and fidelity that Primal and Curiious have provided with this offering is second to none.”
About Primal Pictures
Primal Pictures offers the most complete, detailed, and medically accurate model of human anatomy for health care students, educators, practitioners, researchers, and industry. The company’s market-leading, web- based, three-dimensional anatomy software solutions have been widely adopted and used in nearly 2,000 academic and clinical institutions across the globe to enhance health care education and practice. Primal Pictures is a part of Pharma Intelligence, a division of Informa PLC. Informa operates at the heart of the knowledge and information economy. It is one of the world’s leading business intelligence, academic publishing, knowledge, and events businesses. With more than 6,500 employees globally, it has a presence in all major geographies, including North America, South America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
About the University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide is a world-class research and teaching institution, centred on discovering new knowledge, pursuing innovation and preparing the educated leaders of tomorrow. Proudly ranked in the top 1% of universities in the world, the University of Adelaide has over 100 Rhodes Scholars among its distinguished alumni and is associated with five Nobel Laureates. The University of Adelaide attracts academic staff who are global leaders in their Felds, along with the best and brightest students.
About Adelaide Health Simulation
Adelaide Health Simulation is the most technologically advanced simulation facility in Australasia, and the only Australian simulation facility accredited with the Society for Simulation in Healthcare for excellence in learning and teaching.
Adelaide Health Simulation was designed to accommodate the needs of university undergraduate medical, nursing, and other health sciences students for many years to come, facilitating improved patient safety and quality care delivery for our entire community.
The facility and its team are approved and accredited training providers for ARC courses, ACCRM, RACGP, AHPRA, and other professional bodies.
For more information on Virtual Reality, the anatomy model, or partnership and research opportunities please email [email protected].