The Animated Rheumatologist

Craig W. Wiesenhutter, M.D., is a Board Certified Internist and Rheumatologist  and an Attending Physician at the Kootenai Medical Center in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.  Dr Wiesenhutter undergraduate degree was obtained at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and he is a graduate of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.  He completed his Internal Medicine training and Chief Medical Residency at the Los Angeles County Medical Center - University of Southern California  and his fellowship in Rheumatology and Immunology at the University of California Los Angeles.  He started the Coeur d'Alene Arthritis Clinic in 1983.
        Dr. Wiesenhutter has published numerous articles and abstracts in several peer reviewed scientific journals, including Arthritis and Rheumatism and the Journal of Rheumatology.   He has participated as a principle investigator in more than 250 clinical trials.  His special interest is in computers and computer teaching methods, including the use of multimedia for both live presentations and for content on the internet. He has lectured the U.C.L.A. medical students in Pathophysiology of Disease, utilizing multimedia, for the past 8 years.

 

“I made my first multimedia presentation as a U.C.L.A. Rheumatology fellow at Rheumatology Grand Rounds in 1981. I carried in my Apple II plus along with two monitors for the show. My main topic was on complement components.

Presentation and animation software was very sparse in those days. To make the images and movement, I had to program in apple basic, and draw using vectors and math formulas. It took me over six months to make a 20 minute talk, and I've been hooked ever since. (I transferred the talk to VHS tape at the time, and I'll post it for kicks when I get the chance).

The images and animations on my site have been created over the past 10-15 years. The vast majority of the material was created by hand, usually in 3dStudio max. One example is the “MHC class I Molecule Ribbon Structure” model, which was drawn free hand by looking at over 10 different images with different perspectives. It took me over three weeks to complete. The molecule is not generated from x-ray crystal data, but I bet it would compare fairly closely side by side. Another one of my favorite models is “The Animal Cell” which took well over six weeks to complete. For the non-animator types reading this, all these models can be reused as “actors” in future scripts.

If an image comes from elsewhere (there's a few from Dieppe's textbook), I've tried to point that out. Max is up to Windows version 6 now, but I started with the first DOS program many moons ago.

My other favorite software, which was all heavily used, is listed below. There's some with newer versions, and I do recommend upgrading when available in general.

I am very interested in sharing all the materials on my web site for educational purposes, but please don't alter the slides or animations (such as removing the author's signature) without letting me know. Also, let me know about any commercial use (i.e. don't make money off my stuff without notifying me). ©2004all rights reserved Craig Wiesenhutter .

The flash movies can be run as "Projectors" off computer hard drives or removable media, such as CDROMs, or data DVDs. The Projectors contain all the necessary drivers. The new Macromedia technology makes for high quality, but very compressed files and these materials take up little space. All of my three E-books (eBooks) can be placed on one CDROM.

Also, my content is scaleable, i.e., I would like to run my E-books off of institutional intranets (I know, those guys that run the institutional computers follow a different drummer, but I'm sure we could manage). That way I can enlarge my animations by 2X or more, and use the highest quality setting (now the best quality is only at 90%. The 90% to 100% improvement increases file sizes by 4Xs!!!!!!). I believe the students will enjoy the larger higher resolution format even more.

My ultimate goal is to encourage other educators to contribute to this type of learning tool.

Lastly, all of this material can be rendered as 1920 by 1080 pixel resolution. It takes one of my big workstations about a week or two to render 2 minutes, but she doesn't mind, she has nothing better to do, and I think she likes the work. My point is that some of this content is dazzling (I might be just a little bit biased) when run at that resolution on a large plasma screen monitor.

The microsoft media player version 9 seems to be the most practical way to make hi def content.

 

Craig Wiesenhutter

You will need to download the Macromedia Flash driver version 6 or higher to view the movies.

Favorite Software:

Music Creation Software: Soundpro Acid Pro V.4

Animation Software: Discreet 3dStudio Max V.4

Graphics Software: Corel: CorelDraw Suite 11

Non Linear Editor : Adobe Premiere V.6.5

Internal Organs Models:Viewpoint

Macromedia Flash V.6