Post-Mortems Get a Tech Upgrade with Digital Autopsies

Photo via iGene

It’s the latest tech must-have for the perished: Before laying to rest in your smart grave and Facebooking from the afterlife, you can now have your post-mortem conducted digitally, with the opening of the UK’s first digital autopsy centre today in Sheffield.

The city’s mortuary will be kitted out with imaging equipment that can help examine a corpse and determine the cause of death without the usual messy work of a post-mortem. Rather than slicing open a body, pathologists will be able to digitally peel back the layers to see what’s going on beneath the skin. The technology was developed in Malaysia by a company called iGene, and the UK is the first to roll out a network of the autopsy facilities.

A booklet introducing the technology explains that the dead body is imaged by a CT scanner, and that the scanned 2D “slices” are then turned into a 3D image that pathologists can explore on screen. It’s still pretty hands-on, as the pathologists can carry out the examination using a touch-screen interface. Basically, they’ll be able to digitally slice and dice a corpse using their finger as a scalpel, like a tablet version of Operation. They can navigate through different layers of the body, from skin to muscle to bone, and everything in between with special tools such as the digital scalpel, which is apparently useful for “peeling.” “Forensic pathologist can go layer by layer from skin up to the bone layer,” the decscription elaborates.

Photo via iGene

It might all sound rather grotesque, but unlike with a regular autopsy, no actual slicing and peeling is required. That’s one of the main advantages of the tech, both to pathologists who often have to deal with bodies in various unsavoury states of mutilation and decomposition, and to relatives of the deceased who might be against conventional autopsy methods for religious or personal reasons. The Guardian reported that families will have to pay £500 ($800) for the digital autopsy, unless it’s ordered by the coroner in relation to a criminal investigation.

Digital autopsies could also just generally be quicker and more accurate. It might be easier to locate a bullet on a scan, for instance, than to go digging around in someone’s insides. And as the body isn’t cut open, it could be revisited in its original state at a later point. One pathologist could even leave notes for the next on the digital model—like sticking a post-it on someone’s internal organs.

Of course, this kind of scan can’t reveal all causes of death and it’s not going to completely replace traditional autopsies right now. Biopsies and toxicology reports will still be required in some cases, such as if poisoning is suspected. But overall, the company reckons a majority of post-mortems could be conducted digitally. “There are approximately 550,000 deaths recorded in the UK each year, of which more than 200,000 are subjected to post-mortem, and it is expected that in the future digital autopsies will account for 70 per cent of these,” they said.

For tech enthusiasts, it’s at least a way to go out in style.