Show Me WherePictures for clearer appointments

How to use

Using Show Me Where in an appointment

It works best with the patient and clinician looking at the same screen, with the clinician setting it up and the patient asking questions.

For patients

Before your appointment

You don’t need to download anything or make an account. If you like, have a look at the rectal cancer explorer at home first, so you know what it shows. It starts by showing the rectum and nearby organs as they usually are, with no tumour, so you can get your bearings.

In the room

If something isn’t making sense, it’s fine to say so. Ask your doctor or nurse to open showmewhere.org.uk and set it up to match your scan.

“I’m struggling to picture it. Could you show me where, on Show Me Where?”

“Can you show me what the operation would take away?”

“How close is it to the muscles that control my bowel?”

You can ask them to turn the model, zoom in, cut it open or show you a slice, the same way it looks on your scan.

Afterwards

Ask if they can make you a picture sheet with the views you looked at, a summary in plain words, and a second page explaining every label on the model. Bring someone with you if you can: a second pair of ears helps.

The sheet can carry a QR code. Scan it with your phone camera at home and the same 3D picture opens again, so you can turn it, look again, or show family. The code holds only the model’s settings, never your name, and nothing is stored online.

If you have new questions later, write them down for next time or contact your specialist nurse. Show Me Where can’t answer questions about your own care.

For clinicians

Every tool opens at zero: normal anatomy with the organs showing, and no tumour, operation or stoma. You add each of those, in the order that suits the conversation. Close the tab when you’re done. Nothing is stored between patients.

Rectal cancer: setting up in about a minute

It’s often worth starting with the normal anatomy, so the patient can get their bearings, before adding anything.

  1. Add tumour (or change any tumour setting, which adds it).
  2. Lower edge above the anal verge, from MRI or endoscopy. Type the exact figure to the nearest millimetre (for example 6.7 cm); the millimetre value is shown alongside.
  3. Length of the tumour, to the nearest millimetre.
  4. Position as a clock face (patient lying on their back: 12 front, 6 back, 3 patient’s left) and how far round the wall it extends.
  5. T stage including T3 sub-stage, and N stage.
  6. Response to chemoradiotherapy, if it has been given.
  7. Pelvis: male or female, so nearby organs are shown.

T1 and T2 tumours stay inside the bowel wall, so they can’t be seen from outside. When you show one, the model opens the bowel automatically and turns to the side view.

Talking it through

Press Patient view to hide the set-up panel, so the model and the plain-words explanation fill the screen. Press Show set-up to bring it back.

Then use the camera buttons (side, front, from below, whole body, stoma) to show the patient where it is. Show / hide turns layers on and off; Clean view removes labels if they’re distracting. Cut the bowel open shows the inside, and the slice view matches the orientation of an axial MRI.

Showing the plan

Under Treatment options, tap the operation your team has discussed. The parts it would remove turn teal, and the stoma usually needed is shown on the body. Show Me Where never suggests which option is right: the choice is yours and the MDT’s.

The numbers on screen

Distances such as “mm to surgical plane” are worked out from the simplified model so the picture is consistent. They are not measurements of the patient. Always quote the report.

Making a picture sheet

Set up each view you want and press Snapshot (up to four). Add an optional name or initials and a note, then press Preview the A4 sheet to see the pages and download, open, print or save them. The sheet is laid out on A4 pages, with a page explaining each label in plain English, and a QR code the patient can scan to reopen the same 3D picture at home. The QR code holds only the model settings (tumour position, stage, operation and view), never the name, notes or contact details. Both can be switched off. The sheet is made on your device and saved to your downloads. It isn’t uploaded anywhere. Check it before giving it to the patient, and if you send it, use your organisation’s approved secure route.

No printer? The preview also shows a large QR code. The patient scans it with their phone camera to open the same 3D picture, and can save the picture sheet as a PDF on their own phone. Their name and your notes are not included.

Between patients

Press Start again or close the tab. Nothing typed or set is kept, not even in the browser.

Information governance

  • No personal or clinical data is sent to, or stored by, Show Me Where.
  • No cookies, local storage, analytics or third-party scripts.
  • Everything, including the fonts and 3D library, is served from showmewhere.org.uk.

See the privacy notice and important information for more detail.

Spread the word

Print a clinic poster for a waiting room, clinic room or patient information pack.