GOTAFE students access world-leading technology

An almost $170,000 synthetic human has made the long trip from Florida to Benalla – to benefit students studying Health & Community Services courses at GOTAFE.

The human anatomy technology model, which was developed by American company SynDaver Labs, was purchased with funding from the Victorian Government’s Regional and Specialist Training Fund (RSTF).

A Sectra Table, which is an interactive learning and teaching tool that uses real anatomy and clinical cases to develop critical thinking in critical training was also purchased through RSTF grant funding. This will be used for all applications across the health educational sector.

The RSTF program supports training for specific skills in regional and specialist areas that are not being met by the current training market.

GOTAFE’s interim education executive director, Louise Pearce, said GOTAFE was fortunate to be the only registered training organisation in Australia to have the SynDaver resource. “We are also the first VET training organisation to utilise a Sectra Table in our training programs. Up until now, it was a resource only available in university degree programs.”

“Our students will benefit enormously from being able to learn with the anatomy model and the interactive workstation,” said Ms Pearce.

The SynDaver Anatomy Model is an alternative to human cadavers in basic anatomy classes and has been designed to mimic the physical properties of live tissue.

The Sectra Table is a large, multi-touch medical display that uses real anatomy and clinical cases and allows students to interact with an image. Students can navigate inside the images, as well as remove layers of skin and muscle and dissect the body with a virtual knife.

“GOTAFE is proud to provide students with the opportunity to study locally, and having access to world-class facilities helps ensure they are job-ready when they finish their training,” said Ms Pearce.