Argosy Publishing, an award-winning interactive, visual content developer, today officially launched The Visible Body (www.visiblebody.com), the first free, Web-based 3D interactive model of the human body.
Initially developed for educators, and health and medical professionals, The Visible Body is a next-generation, professional-grade platform that demonstrates how the human body works.
It will also be of interest to individuals with a deep appreciation for the human anatomy and science.
The Visible Body allows all users to visualize the human body and quickly and easily explore areas of interest to see how more than 1,700 anatomical structures -- including major organs and systems -- work together.
"It can be very hard to explain a specific injury or pathology to a patient or student using the illustrations and descriptions available in the medical text books," said Edward G. Buckley, MD, professor of ophthalmology and pediatrics and interim vice dean for medical education at Duke University Medical School. "The unique 3D approach used by The Visible Body gives physicians and educators the ability to visually demonstrate and explain how the body works to their patients or students in a way that is easily understandable."
Developed by a team with decades of experience in medical illustration and biomedical visualization, The Visible Body consists of highly detailed, anatomically accurate, 3D models of all human body systems.
The clean and simple interface allows physicians, health and medical professionals and educators to: explore different anatomical structures to enhance clarity and to better understand interdependencies between different body parts by adding or removing adjacent structures and isolating specific structures of the body; share a perspective with colleagues, students or patients; explain an injury; examine the location and detail of a specific body part or organ in a 3D, 360-degree view; rotate the body model in any direction, zoom in and out of it and move through it with a few mouse clicks.
The Visible Body has quickly become a popular destination for thousands of students and medical professionals. Since an initial trial release period, more than 150,000 users worldwide have registered for The Visible Body.
In addition, The Visible Body continues to experience high traffic volumes, including more than three million page views per month, with a significant number of repeat visitors.
The Visible Body is currently a free site. The Visible Body's medical visualization and search capabilities provide a platform for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and other healthcare firms -- through content appropriate advertisements -- to market their services to health educators and their students, as well as medical professionals and their patients, who are exploring the human anatomy and physiology.
"Our next steps are to expand The Visible Body by adding different human models, medical pathology and therapy information, so that consumers can get a deeper understanding of their conditions and available treatments," added Bowditch.
The Visible Body is free and accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. It can be easily downloaded using Internet Explorer with Macromedia Flash and Anark Client plug-ins. Both plug-ins are automatically downloaded and installed.
The Visible Body is currently available in English. Additional language support is expected later this year.
