ModalityBody Review:
General Impressions: The Most Comprehensive Set of High Quality Images currently available, Unique and Useful Inter-Application Functionality, Decent User interface. (4.5 stars out of 5)
Modality Body has created a product that separates it from the rest of the apps by taking some of best anatomy atlases/flashcard apps and combining them to be used together. These apps are purchased within the free ModalityBody store. Having gone through a majority of these apps, I now see how much these apps facilitate learning anatomy.
At a minimum, I would recommend purchasing Rohen’s Photographic Anatomy Flash Cards ($29.99), Imaging Atlas of Human Anatomy($59.99), and Atlas of Anatomy($74.99). Why these three? Because you can see the real thing (Rohen’s), the drawings representing the real thing (Atlas of Anatomy), and then the CTs/MRIs/X-rays that we use in modern medicine (Imaging Atlas) to see the real thing. If you wanted to add one to the list, I suggest Netters Anatomy Flash Cards ($39.99), not just for the extra images, but for the text that goes with it (origin, insertion, innervations of muscles)
These will be Apps that you can use throughout your career. Furthermore, the images are interactive; there are red dots that, when touched, display the name of the structures (versus being numbered and finding the associated term beneath the picture).
What I Liked:
1) User-Created Albums/Custom Sets
Albums:
Modality has a unique way of allowing the user to combine the interactive images of multiple apps together into “albums”. For example, I can open Rohen’s to view an image of the thorax. On the bottom left hand side of this image(and every image in EVERY app) there is a folder shaped button. This button allows me to create and name an album, in this case “Thorax album”). Then I can export the interactive thorax image to this album. After Rohens, I can open the Atlas of Anatomy and place drawings of the thorax in my album. Finally, I can take some CT’s/Radiographs of the thorax from the Imaging Atlas and add them to my album as well. Now, instead of jumping between multiple apps to view important thorax images, I have them all in one place.
Custom Sets (Albums plus more!- the reason why this app earns a 4.5/5):
To add icing to the cake, one can take any image from any other source (an app NOT in the modality store or any image from your photo library) and import it into your album(s).
To do this, click the home button and the power button at the same time so the iPad will take a snap shot of the screen and store the snap shot in the photo library (this is a feature of iOS, not Modality). Create and name a “Custom Set” in which to import these images from the photo library. Finally the image in the Custom Set can be added to the desired album by using the Edit button and selecting the correct album.
2)Index and Search Functions
Another advantage of having all the different apps combined together within the modality store is that you can search for a term in all of the apps at once. When I took anatomy it was difficult to find the best image to explain the text that I was reading. For example, when you need to see the relationship of one muscle to others, you want several different views. With modality, you can enter External Intercoastal in the index and the displayed results will show every reference in all of the apps that you have purchased.
An additional advantage to the modality store is that when you tap on a red pin on a particular structure, the name will appear and “i”. The “i” function will show you related diagrams in other apps and allow you to search Google, Wikipedia, and Pubmed without exiting the app. Very cool and well thought out. A+ here.
3) Adding Pins
There is nothing that I like more than being able to add pins to any image to identify additional items. This function allows the user to customize their anatomy learning experience.
4)Image Quality:
All of the images are high quality and zoomable. This creates large files; however it is well worth it.
What I Didn’t Like:
1)User interface.
While I think modality has done a great job combining the apps together, the user interface in the apps themselves are a little underwhelming. For example, you are confined to each image, thus there is neither rotation nor moving across the body to immediately see a different muscle.
Furthermore, while there are links to Google, Wikipedia and Pubmed for each pin, I would like more detailed information for each pin. Netter’s provides this for the muscles (you just have to click on the top right of the image where it says “Page” to see the text associated with it.
2)It is are still a little buggy.
Many of these modality apps have been released very recently so there are some bugs– nothing worth boycotting, but still somewhat irritating. First, when clicking on “Page” (see above), there is some lag before it displays and sometimes it didn’t work.
A second issue is the index. I noticed that the more apps I had, the slower the index became. While with more purchased apps there is more info to sort through, but the lag became troublesome.
3)Price
While I understand that the cost of all of these apps combined is less than 1/10 of one percent of the cost of a medical education, we are students currently incurring debt. Thus we are sensitive about pricing due to our strict budgets that don’t include iPad apps. I also understand that it costs money to make these great apps–however please lower the price a little! However I have to say, that in the scope of the price of our education, these apps are worth the money.