13 - Integration of Medical Imaging into Neuroanatomy in the MD Curriculum

Poster Board Number: 13
There are separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – first hour
Even poster #s – second hour

Abstract Body : Introduction & Objective:
Despite the evolution of medical school curricula over the last century, anatomical instruction has remained an essential component. However, increasing curricular demands have resulted in more integration of clinical medicine and the basic sciences, including within anatomy. Medical imaging, or radiology, has been included in anatomy instruction but with widely varied content and structure. Our objective was to integrate medical imaging into the MD anatomy curriculum beginning with the Neuroscience module.

Materials & Methods:
An Anatomy Task Force was assembled at our institution with a goal of providing clinically relevant, technology-enhanced approaches to assist students in applying anatomical knowledge in the 21st century. A new MD anatomy curriculum was developed and implemented that includes station-based anatomy with fully dissected donors, and the integration of medical imaging and histopathology into the Anatomy Lab.

The medical imaging station includes an interactive approximately 12-minute lecture including 3D cadaveric images from the VH Dissector software, as well as radiological images taught by a radiology trainee or attending. There is approximately 8 minutes left during the station for students to review an unknown anonymous case via a DICOM viewer on their team iPads with the case then discussed as a group with the radiology instructor. The DICOM viewer allows the students to interact with the radiology case by scrolling through the images on their team iPads, as well as gives the students time to analyze the case together in their small team before the larger group students reviews the case with the radiology instructor.

Results:
Feedback from the student review panel and from individual students was reviewed. Feedback for the medical imaging station was very positive with a mean score of 4.5 out of 5.0 out of 31 responses. Some of the specific comments worthy of noting include: “I love the interactiveness of the session overall.”, “I really liked having the interactive imaging/pathology case on the iPads. It was helpful to be able to scroll through the images and look for lesions myself.”, etc. We will also evaluate student outcome data via module examinations.

Conclusion:
The integration of medical imaging into our Neuroscience anatomy lab module using our station-based curriculum has resulted in positive feedback from our medical students. This technique and curriculum can also be applied to our modules throughout the medical school curriculum.