Postbac Premed Student Creates App to Master Fetal Pig Anatomy

Few people would think to digitally replicate the intricacies of fetal pig dissection for smartphone users, let alone expect to make any money from it. But that's just what Postbac Premed student Andrew Meyerson '14 did recently when he created Dig a Pig, an app designed to help biology students in their study of fetal pig anatomy.

May 13, 2014

"Nothing beats hands-on experience, but when you have only four hours each week to master the entire pig anatomy, it can be rather difficult. With the Dig a Pig app, you have access to 217 high-resolution images to supplement your study outside of the lab," Meyerson said.

Meyerson, who is quite the photographer, found himself three weeks from Professor Claire Hazen's fetal pig exam without having memorized the structures. He thought the best way to quickly learn them would be visually, so with the help of his iPhone, he created flashcards out of 4x6 photos he had printed at Walgreens.

"It ended up being a great study tool and I did very well on the exam, but carrying around a five-pound stack of prints wasn't fun," Meyerson said.

This stack of prints was conspicuous, and soon other students started asking about the images. Meyerson quickly ran out of copies to pass around. From this, the idea for Dig a Pig was born.

With the guidance of Professor Hazen, Meyerson designed the app from scratch, taking the photographs, storyboarding the concept, determining the menu hierarchies, and doing all of the graphic design work. He then hired a programmer to set up the underlying structure of the app, bringing Dig a Pig to life.

"Dig a Pig was an exciting project to work on while I was here at Columbia, and it was such an honor to have the support of Professor Hazen, who I think is the best teacher at this institution," Meyerson said.

Despite the early success of Dig a Pig, as evidenced by its strong sales and exclusively four- and five-star online reviews, Meyerson plans to take a hiatus from his app-creating career in order to prepare for medical school, which he hopes to begin this fall.

"I have a few more ideas for what I think would be great apps, but I promised my family that I’d put the app development career on hold until I’m a doctor. Then I’m allowed to play."


Dig a Pig is available for purchase in the App Store and on Google Play.