What doctors say is the world's first 3D surgical training system of its kind has been launched in Dublin, after a two-year project funded by Science Foundation Ireland and the Royal College of Surgeons.
It will help surgical trainees and physiotherapy students to hone their skills.
The technology is the same as that used for the blockbuster film ''Avatar''.
Students will learn the sites of incisions, the movement of joints and the locations of various organs.
The four-hour training programme will go live in 2012 in the RCSI and in the college of surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa.
The 3D system was designed in a collaboration between anatomists, artists and engineers and the Royal Hibernian Academy.
Medical students do not have regular access to live models to learn their skills and access to bodies of the deceased donated by families for study are also limited.
The technology will also assist students from religious backgrounds where training on a cadaver would not be permitted or more difficult due to time restrictions on burials.
Professor Clive Lee, Head of the Department of Anatomy at the RCSI, said the system will allow doctors teach vital lessons in a richer and more engaging manner and on a more frequent basis.
