Software substitutes animals for experimentation in lab

Updated on: Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Henceforth, medical students need not work animal dissection and experimentation with the development of computer-assisted learning package. 'ExPharm.

Developed by Prof R Raveendran, the new package would reduce the number of animals being experimented upon and also improve teaching.

Speaking at a medical education workshop on alternatives to the use of animals in MBBS programmes held in JIPMER on Jan 16, Raveendran, a professor of pharmacology says, "Students can repeat the experiments several times”.

Although, the package was developed in 1989, it could not be used for the next five years due to lack of hardware facilities. However, the package was used for the first time in 1994 to demonstrate the effects of drugs on blood pressure and heart rates of dogs. This has helped to replace experiments on live dogs.

The professor says ExPharm can be effectively used to simulate animal experiments and to demonstrate drug actions on different animal systems. The package is user-friendly, interactive and full of animated sequences that make the experience realistic.

After the advent of the package, usage of frogs, guinea pigs, mice, rats, rabbits, dogs and rabbits have reduced drastically.

With the introduction of the package, the professor says that the number of mandatory animal experiments to be performed by students to pass final examinations has been reduced to 3 from 15 in JIPMER.

Software substitutes animals for experimentation in lab

More Education news