A group of biomedical engineering students from King's College London have created "anthropomorphic phantoms" - highly realistic artificial organs - to reduce reliance on cadavers and animals in medical training and testing.

London

A team of biomedical engineering students at King's College London has developed highly realistic artificial organs, known as anthropomorphic phantoms, for use in medical training and testing. These models, made from rubber and plastic, are designed to closely replicate the look, feel, and imaging properties of real human tissue, allowing trainee doctors and surgeons to practice procedures safely and ethically.

The innovation aims to reduce the need for cadavers and animals in medical education, lowering costs and addressing ethical concerns. The team, supported by lecturer Antonia Ponticki, has already created models for cardiology, ENT surgery, and urology, and their designs are also being used to test new medical technologies, including AI tools. The project recently received a UK award for its commercial potential.

'Realistic' fake organs offer cheaper, ethical training for surgeons

It's a set of artificial organs that look and feel like the real thing, but they are made from materials like rubber and plastic, not living tissue. The innovation could reduce the need for cadavers and animals in medical training and testing. Called anthropomorphic phantoms, these highly realistic models were developed by a group of biomedical engineering students from King's College London who call themselves Peach Simulators. Lecturer Antonia Ponticki supported the team. We developed 3D digital models of anatomical structures using patient scans and then we tried to identify engineering materials that mimic and have similar properties to the human tissue to match and reproduce the human tissue using those materials. The models enabled trainee doctors and surgeons to safely practice on replicas of human anatomy without risk to patients, all at a cheaper cost while also helping to avoid ethical issues. Carlos Saiga explains how that's done. This particular heart is made such that it looks just right under x-ray and that means it looks very similar to water and then underneath it we have a spine and the spine is made such that we have a layer of compact bone which is very radiopaque and on the inside we have something that looks like spongy bone and so once again it looks just right in terms of visibility in x-ray and the doctors can learn how things would look in real life and engage just with that tiny bit of visibility that we get where they are and what they're doing. The team won a UK award for innovations with commercial potential. So far they have developed models for fields including cardiology, ear, nose and throat surgery and urology but they aim to expand further and fill gaps in testing and training. Their designs are also being used to test new medical technologies including AI tools. Saiga explained that using animals to test AI driven tools in medicine can have complications as animals' bodies operate too differently from humans. The only way to do this without human testing is really to make something fake that looks just like the real deal.

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