Maria Koss, junior health science major, is getting a firsthand view of the future of health professions training thanks to the new Dave and Norma McCarthy Virtual Reality Lab in memory of Dr. Anne Crecelius.
On Thursdays, Koss works as a teaching assistant in the VR lab for human anatomy. Kimberly Ritterhoff, UD Department of Health and Sport Science senior lecturer who teaches the section, covers class content before students head to equipment to examine human anatomy in 3D.
Koss took the course her sophomore year and said there’s a big difference between her experience and that of current students.
“Before, professor Ritterhoff would tell us what to look for, and then we would go into the cadaver lab for TAs to show us where those parts are. But now with the new equipment, there’s opportunity to learn through collaboration,” Koss said. “You get to work with your friends on it, which can help you learn the content because maybe they know something you don’t and vice versa. It also opens opportunities to solidify your knowledge because if you can teach somebody else the content, then you know it for sure.”
Ritterhoff said her students do prep work in their lab manuals with 2D images before coming into class. They then work on the Anatomage tables and tablets to see where each piece fits in relation to bones, ligaments, muscles and other organs.
“A lot of this work is memorization; the more time that you have with the content, the better you do with the content,” Koss said. “We are required to critically think about anatomical relationships to correctly identify the body part. When students are in the cadaver lab, especially during exams when we open the bodies and they have to figure out things they haven’t seen before, they’re ready.”
The last half of the human anatomy lab is spent in the cadaver lab. It’s the natural progression of knowledge stacking — from 2D to 3D to a real body. “Then it all comes together for them, piece by piece,” Ritterhoff said. “It’s like working through a puzzle. First you start with the borders, and then you look at the shapes of each piece and group similar colors together. Rather than colors and shapes, we use similar functioning to help identify the location of an unknown part and figure out how it relates to the body as a whole.”
Ritterhoff also said having this technology means students get more time with the material because they can access the equipment outside of class hours.
“The cadaver lab can’t be open 24/7 — those are sensitive donations and are treated as such,” Ritterhoff said. “Instead, students learn how to responsibly use the technology in a shared learning space. Then they can come in when it works for their schedule and study habits to practice, test their knowledge or explore the body and all of its components.”
The Anatomage tables and tablets were provided by Dave McCarthy ’71 and Norma Whitacre McCarthy ’71 during the last five years, but having all of the equipment in one room is new, as well as the seven virtual reality stations installed in October 2025. The lab is dedicated to the memory of Anne Crecelius ’07, UD professor of health and sport science who died in 2023.
For this anatomy course, the virtual reality stations help students place themselves inside the body to see how microscopic structures function, or enter a simulated environment to practice clinical skills or public speaking. Ritterhoff said the VR lab prepares students to use similar technologies in the field and graduate or professional school.
Corinne Daprano, School of Education and Health Sciences interim dean, said the lab is already in use for the human anatomy course and expects the other health professions programs as well as the other SEHS programs to incorporate it in the future.
“This is about preparing students for the next step,” Daprano said. “Whether they go into the health professions or another field, they’ll have experience using advanced tools that mirror the technology shaping those fields today.”
