News Photo by Temi Fadayomi An Anatomage table located in Van Lare Hall on the campus of Alpena Community College is pictured on Thursday.

ALPENA — On Thursday, the Alpena Community College Board of Trustees unanimously voted to approve the purchase of an Anatomage table, at the cost of $62,795, for use on its Alpena campus.

The Anatomage table is a device that allows users to simulate medical image data and reconstruct it as a 3D image. This allows students to visualize the internal and surface anatomy in 3D space dynamically, with high resolution and great accuracy.

ACC currently has two Anatomage tables — on the school’s Alpena campus and the other on its Oscoda campus. Due to the increased use of the table and issues with transporting it across campus, the college decided to get a new one.

The Anatomage table located on the Alpena campus is a life-sized model, while the table in Oscoda and the newly purchased one are smaller models that come with a few additional advantages, which Douglas Mayo, the director of nursing on ACC’s Oscoda campus explained.

“It’s much more portable,” Mayo said about the smaller Anatomage table model. “The other big difference is that the table top tips up making it a good teaching device.”

The machine is being purchased using funding from a state Bachelor of Science in Nursing Grant, which is a $2,000,000 four-year grant.

The Alpena Community College Board of Trustees on Thursday also:

∫ Purchased a neonatal simulator for its Oscoda campus to help nursing students get comfortable with neonates — an infant less than four weeks old — before going into the clinical setting.

The device will cost $61,377 and will be completely paid for by the Alpena Community College FIPSE Oscoda Campus Improvement Project Grant from 2022.

∫ Authorized college officials to form a two-year contract with Beyond Horizons Tour & Travel of Mt. Pleasant to provide bus transportation for the men’s and women’s basketball teams and the baseball and softball teams.

The cost is expected to be $67,799.00 but that amount is subject to change depending on other factors like Scheduling changes.

The cost of the contract is coming out of the ACC’s athletics budget.