A graduate of the Mayo Clinic, he has been practising in the States for 20 years and teaching for the past 14. As well as running one, two and three day seminars on Spine Care across the Mid-West USA, he has also taught at the Mayo Clinic and Mercy Medical Systems.
Using Primal gives a better idea of the origins and insertions of muscles – it’s like taking a walk through the body.
“I was given a copy of the first piece of software produced by Primal Pictures when it was launched seven years ago. I was happy to try it out in my teaching and was really impressed with it. I had never seen anything like it. What I loved about it was the ability to be able to spin the images and jump in, peel back the layers and really see what is going on in the body in three dimensions. It’s like having another manual, except this one is more alive.
Before I began using Primal, I had to select pages from books to use for slides in my presentations. So having the software and being able to illustrate my teaching points in 3D on a PowerPoint presentation makes a massive difference. It's also a fantastic resource for producing test questions for use in class. "Using Primal gives a better idea of the origins and insertions of muscles – it's like taking a walk through the body – and facilitates a much deeper understanding of what is happening. I find that there is a quicker and more thorough uptake of the subject by teaching with the aid of the 3D images – especially since I can choose specific angles and layers for my presentations in order to illustrate the points I am making.
In fact, in some ways, having Primal is better than having a model or a cadaver. Although it is nice to have a model to show the visceral and nervous systems, many models are pinned together which makes it difficult to demonstrate specific movements or muscle functions. Cadavers on the other hand are a great teaching tool, but once you have looked at something once, it is difficult to revisit it. Primal offers the opportunity to go back over something as many times as is necessary and offers a fabulous view of the structure through the spine.
People learn in different ways and where I teach, students are provided with access to Primal as part of their ‘reading list’. It’s an essential part of their learning resource, alongside the cadaver labs and text books. It’s really easy to navigate around the software and is very in-depth. I thoroughly recommend it as a teaching and learning resource.