It’s called a Sectra Table, and it’s a large, multi-touch medical display that takes data from the students’ cadavers provided by CT scans and presents them in 3D images, letting students explore anatomy away from the lab.

“When you’re not dissecting, you’re going to be right here practicing with this,” Rarey told his captivated audience.

Dustin Anderson took to the new technology like he’d been operating it for years. By simply touching the screen, he was interacting with the image intuitively — swiping, scrolling and zooming in on the body. After a couple minutes, he was removing layers of skin and muscle, dissecting the body with a virtual knife.

“This will take learning anatomy and organ systems to a whole new level,” said the medical student from California. “It’s the kind of thing that made me choose to come to UF for medical school.”

The newest teaching tool is the latest example of the UF College of Medicine’s tradition for marrying conventional learning with new technology — coming just as the college was celebrating its 60th anniversary.

“Since the founding of our college in 1956, innovation and collaboration have been at the core of everything we do,” said Michael L. Good, MD, dean of the UF College of Medicine. “Our rich history is defined by the contributions our graduates and faculty have had on the medical profession.”

The UF College of Medicine celebrated its 60th anniversary throughout 2016, culminating with two days of events in September that included a national deans’ panel, a celebration gala and an appreciation barbecue in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of the College of Nursing that fed more than 850 students, faculty and staff of UF’s academic health center.

The UF College of Medicine opened its doors to students for the first time in 1956, but its history dates back to when the Florida Legislature approved Gainesville as the official site of the state’s first public medical school in 1949. What followed was a plan for something bigger than a medical school that was borne out of the minds of visionary leaders like UF’s fourth president J. Hillis Miller and George T. Harrell, MD, the UF College of Medicine’s founding dean.

Miller became president of UF in 1947, revealing his vision for a health center that would not just educate doctors and nurses, but also pharmacists, allied health professionals, dentists and, later, veterinarians all on a single campus. Harrell shared the vision and meticulously plotted everything in the new medical school, from how high the windows should be to what students should learn. Harrell’s idealism inspired the faculty he hired and spilled over into the foundation of the college he was creating.

“Dr. Harrell was a legendary trendsetter in medical education who instilled in his students an unwavering focus on the patient’s well-being,” Good said.

Miller died of heart failure in 1953 and never saw his vision realized.

“I’m not sure he could have imagined the top-tier academic health center that has emerged, providing care for the local community and state while sending highly trained medical leaders to the far reaches of the world,” said James Duke, MD, president of the UF Medical Alumni Board of Directors.

Since 1956, the UF College of Medicine has graduated more than 5,800 physicians, 1,658 physician assistant and 1,183 PhD scientists and has trained tens of thousands of resident physicians. UF College of Medicine faculty are national leaders in fundamental, translational and clinical research.

UF Health, which encompasses the six health colleges, nine research centers and institutes, and the UF Health Shands and UF Health Jacksonville family of hospitals, outpatient practices and services, is the Southeast’s most comprehensive academic health center.

“It started with the first building that opened in 1956, and has grown to a large academic health center that includes research buildings, campuses in Jacksonville and Orlando, medical office buildings throughout Gainesville and the transformational George T. Harrell, MD, Medical Education Building,” said David S. Guzick, MD, PhD, senior vice president for health affairs at UF and president of UF Health. “But the most important part of our growth in size and stature are the amazing faculty who work in these buildings.”

“I believe deeply that the UF College of Medicine is moving medicine forward, improving the health of our state and most importantly, making a difference in the lives of many, many patients,” Good said. “But to make sure our momentum continues and accelerates, we must attract the top students from around the country and the top professors who will advance the research that has distinguished our university for decades.”

Good explained that private philanthropy will play an essential role in the college’s future.

“We know that many of the very best medical school candidates have difficulty handling the cost of earning their medical degree,” he said, “and we are working to increase our scholarship endowment to help open the doors to our medical school to these students.”

To teach the future physicians, physician assistants and scientists, Good said the college is committed to retaining and recruiting the very best faculty from around the world.

“Endowed professorships make sure our very best professors have the time and funds to move medicine forward,” he said. “State funds and tuition allow us to be a very good medical school. Endowed professorships enable us to be a nationally prominent medical school.”

The UF College of Medicine’s success is also crucial to the University of Florida’s plan to rise among the nation’s top public universities.

“Through the transformational research of its faculty, the leading-edge education of students, and the life-changing care of patients,” said W. Kent Fuchs, president of UF, “this college will enable the University of Florida in the decades ahead to be our nation’s truly preeminent university.”