A unique online resource,
Digitised Diseases, brings together some 1,600 specimens of diseased human bone into a single digital. The collection offers trainee medics, clinicians and medical historians around the world the chance to study the effects of chronic diseases on the skeleton.
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A deformed skull, one of the 1,600 specimens available to explore in 3D
on the Digitised Diseases website from Monday |
The Digitised Diseases web resource can be found at www.digitiseddiseases.org. It contains 3D models of bones affected by over 90 chronic pathological conditions ranging from common complaints such as osteoarthritis, and osteoporosis, to rare bone cancers, skeletal trauma and conditions that are often considered to be diseases of poverty in the modern world, such as tuberculosis and polio.
The bones have been digitised using a combination of 3D laser scanning, CT and radiography. The models are accompanied by descriptions and broader clinical synopses of these conditions.
Specimens, currently housed in major archaeological and medical collections across the UK, have been digitised, including samples that would otherwise be too fragile to handle. It is a valuable resource for students and researchers in countries that do not have access to bone collections or where the study of real human remains is restricted.
