Anatomy is one of the many difficult courses you take in the first two years of medical school. With so much information to learn in such a short amount of time it very important to find a very efficient and effective way to study. Luckily with all of the technology out there there are a variety of quality apps which can make learning anatomy a lot more digestible. In this article I discuss the best Anatomy apps for medical students.

 1. Teach Me Anatomy 

Overview

Teach Me Anatomy is an anatomy learning application which consists of an encyclopedia of anatomical structures as well as quiz questions. This is a part of the Teach Me Series which is a UK based company that provides free access to a variety of medical knowledge and topics.

Premium membership Features

• The Premium membership gives you access to the entire question bank.

Pros

• One of the major pros is how simple the layout of the interface is. As soon you arrive on the website you immediately know where everything is. 
• Sometimes question Banks can be difficult to navigate
• Another thing that I like about Teach me Anatomy is how concise and short the articles are. Often times other question banks will include extra information that is not necessarily information that is needed to pass board exams as well as School Exams. An example of this is Kenhub which routinely includes information on anatomical regions that are very obscure and not likely  to be tested on

Cons

• They could add more questions to certain topics. For instance the section on cranial nerves does not have many questions.

Does Teach Me Anatomy have a mobile app

• Yes Teach Me anatomy has a downloadabele app for mobile devices.

• 3D interactive feature: 
  • The 3D anatomy tool allows you to view the body in 3 dimensions and toggle the cadaver with your cursor to get a more detailed view of the various anatomical regions
  • Additionally, within the 3D images you have the option of hiding the labels. This function can serve as a way to quiz yourself and further solidify your understanding of the material

Filtering Function

• The Filtering Function is very good as it allows you to do questions on specific organ systems.

Question Format

• Questions are short multiple choice questions. They aren’t long vignettes that are the standard style of the USMLE exam

Quality of the figures

• The figures appear as drawn and the regions of importance for the given topic are distinguishable as separate colors from the rest of the body. This is very helpful if you are primarily a visual learner.

• In addition to the 2 dimensional drawings there are also 3D models which you are able to interact with in the 3D model section.

How to use it with other resources

• I would use this with a resource such as Amboss which has longer style questions. For example, Amboss contains an articles that go over the cranial nerves extensively. However the article on Amboss does not have many pictures on the anatomy of the cranial nerves. This is where you could use Teach me Anatomy to get a good visual image of what you are studying while you use longer questions which are more representative of the USMLE exam

Draw it to know it

Overview

• interactive platform in which users learn anatomical structures by going through drawing exercises as they watch a video lesson.

price

• There are various price depending on the package you choose.
• Systems based courses are 14.99 a month
• Subject based course is
• Foundational courses are 9.99 a month
• board/test prep is 24.99 a month

Premium membership features: Premium membership gives you access to all of the features for each

organ system which inclues

• question bank
• atlas
• tutorials
• study plans

Pros

• This is an extremely interactive platform. This is a great resource if you are someone that has to engage with material in the form of drawing, making charts and quizzing in order to learn material
• The quizzes are very helpful especially if taken before the tutorial, as this helps know what to focus on during the lesson.
• Board Highlight feature
• it contains a lot of other foundational courses such as embryology, genetics, and cell biology

How to use Draw it to Know with other resources

Anatomy.app

Overview

• This is a Learning application created by the University of Michigan which includes an Encyclopedia that has anatomical images, figures, and practice questions.

Price

• The price is 7.99 for 1 month of access, 79.99 for a year of access, and 225 for a lifetime access.

Premium membership features:

• unlimited access to all Quiz questions
• Encyclopedia
• 3D Anatomy

Pros

• There is an option to listen to audio text. This is useful for the who are auditory learners.

• Another pro is that The questions use color coding which helps with identification of structures.

• Additionally the questions can be created based on four difficulty levels which are Base, Intermediate, and advanced.

• Another pro is the format. Navigating the home page is extremely easy because all of the topics are centrally located and not difficult to find.

• finally, the last pro is that the platform tracks your progress so you do not lose place of where you were reading.

Cons:

• They are mainly memorization type questions and not questions that you would see on the USMLE exam. Still I think this resource is pretty good if you are just starting out learning anatomy.
• the second big negative is that it lacks a spaced repetition feature.
• Another con is that there are no gross anatomy images or questions.

Best way use to Anatomy.app

The best way to use Anatomy Bootcamp I think is to use it to use it to quickly review for a subject exam. As previously mentioned all the topics are found in one place which prevents you from wasting time searching from one topic to the number. I would use it alongside a resource which more closely resembles the USMLE step exams.

Additionally you could use it with resources such as Anatomy bootcamp which contains gross anatomy, as well as more clinically relevant questions. You can get this discounted for 20% using the discount MUBA20.

SecondLook MSK Anatomy

Overview

This is an app created by the University of Michigan School of Medicine which contains slides of various labeled structures such as bones and muscles that allows you to review relevant MSK anatomy, as well as test yourself on identifying structures. All images are from the University of Michigan School of Michigan cadaver lab.

Price: Free

Pros

• The app is free
• The app is very interactive. you can assess your knowledge by answering some of the questions asking you to label structures.
• Images are very high quality
• Works for iPad and iPhone, and android

Cons

• questions are not multiple choice

Best way to use SecondLook

Use it as a way to very quickly review for lab practical exams, or if you need to quickly see a real cadaver structure. It would be most helpful for use during the MSK unit in your 1st year of medical school.

In Conclusion

As you can see there are many options for choosing the right anatomy application. Using any one of the apps in this article is a define way to improve your understanding of anatomy and make medical school a bit more bearable. For other ways to help with studying anatomy, you might find the article below helpful

• Best Question Banks for Anatomy for Medical Students