Visible Human Project

The Visible Human Project is a computerized library of human anatomy at the National Library of Medicine. It begins in 1986 and is still an ongoing medical project. As a result, it has created what is termed as “complete, anatomically detailed, three-dimensional representations of the mal and female human body.” The images are accessible over the internet. Hundreds of people have used these images on computer screens where they can be rotated and flipped and taken apart and put back together. The structures can be enlarged and highlighted. The images have been made available on CD-ROM format to allow students of anatomy, researchers, surgeons, and dentist who discovered a new face muscle. The Visible Human Project is a fantastic tool that lets you view almost all anatomical structures of the body. Anatomical legends of the Visible Human Project are available in Latin (Terminologia Anatomica), French, English, Spanish, Czech, Portuguese, Russian and Japanese. The Visible Human is also available for both teaching and research purposes. Some of the projects using VH data include several three-dimensional views of the human body and images of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI and computed tomography (CT) scans. An example of how VHP improved human image capability is the use of ADAM, a program that uses Visible Human data to teach anatomy. The data provided by the Visible Human are the source for a virtual colonoscopy.