Technology has progressed from capturing the still images of a broken bone to computerized images of the beating heart of a fetus in a mother's womb. A new exhibit at the Montshire Museum titled "Looking Inside" now allows everyday visitors to see these images of the human body in its dynamic state.
Dr. Peter Spiegel, head of the Radiology department at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and Radiology Resident Tina Nelson organized and donated the collection of images to the Montshire.
On an interactive computer program, visitors can view a collection of X-rays, CAT scans, ultrasound photographs and fluoroscopy and angiography images.
Joan Waltermire, curator at the Montshire Museum, said, "We have a computer library of all these images of different ways of looking at the human body."
Spiegel's idea was inspired by an exhibit at the Hood Museum of Art.
The Hood's exhibit showed how the human body was represented through time with drawings, wax models, cadavers and some of the images we use today like X-rays, Spiegel said.
The exhibit was well done, he said, but the images presented mostly a static view of the human body. "I thought about how much kids could learn about the human body in terms of function through imaging," he said.
"You are not just seeing anatomy of the human body but function and movement in a natural state which doesn't disturb the body," Spiegel added.
"With a mouse, the viewer can key on a particular imaging technique and see something like the action of swallowing, following the food to the stomach," Spiegel said.
Spiegel said that the program also includes a cardiology section where visitors can see such things as diseased and normal heart valves.
There is also a selection of different maternal states. "There are ultrasound images of embryos at six weeks of age and even triplets in a uterus, " Waltermire said.
Manager of Public Relations at the Montshire Kevin Coburn, said, "We aren't aware of any other medical imaging program that has been put together like this for teaching."
"Looking Inside" opens Saturday at the Montshire in conjunction with the Dartmouth Medical School's 200th Anniversary. The museum will hold a free day Saturday from 1-4 p.m. with music, food and entertainment.
