Modernizing Medical Museums Through the 3D Digitization of Pathological Specimens

The anatomical collections at the National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM) contain skeletal specimens that highlight the history of military and civilian medicine dating from the American Civil War and the founding of the museum as the Army Medical Museum in 1862. Today, NMHM curates over 6400 gross skeletal specimens consisting primarily of pathological or anomalous single bone elements that display a variety of pathological conditions, including congenital anomalies, neoplasms, healed and unhealed trauma and infectious diseases, and surgical interventions such as amputations and excisions. In an effort to increase accessibility to these pathological specimens, NMHM is collaborating with Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and the Laboratory Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to digitize and disseminate high-quality 3D models via online portals, enabling scholars and educators to manipulate, analyze, and 3D print the models from anywhere in the world. Many institutions with courses in paleopathology and forensic anthropology do not have reference collections or access to museum collections for hands-on teaching. Therefore a digital repository of osteological specimens can provide an unprecedented and unique resource of exemplars for scholars and educators. The sharing of these military medical assets improves historical knowledge and diagnostic capabilities in the fields of medicine and anthropology. This chapter outlines the digitization processes that are being utilized to increase access to these pathological skeletal specimens through multimodal 3D capture.