53 - Decline of Gross Anatomy in Medical Education: Developing Mechanisms to Counter the Effects of Decreased Training in Gross Anatomy

Poster Board Number: 53
There are separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – first hour
Even poster #s – second hour

Abstract Body : Training of physicians in the basic sciences has been substantially reduced in many medical schools. Compression of instruction in Gross Anatomy, often including elimination of many laboratory dissections, could particularly affect the subset of students who seek to specialize in disciplines that require extensive knowledge of body structure, such as surgery, radiology and obstetrics/gynecology. However, the consequences of curricular compression/revision in Anatomy have not been adequately studied. Our ongoing observational study has sought to 1) develop pedagogical methods to counter the effects of compression of content and reduction in duration of anatomy instruction and 2) to evaluate their effectiveness in conveying information essential to understanding body structure. At the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine of Marshall University, a proposed approach to re-establishing Gross Anatomy in the curriculum has been to utilize and expand an elective course, Surgical Anatomy, to enhance training in the fourth year of undergraduate medical education. This course has focused upon cadaver dissections and has allowed students to review and expand their knowledge of Gross Anatomy, as well as generating prosected specimens for teaching. We have developed a questionnaire to assess the effectiveness of the course in training in the anatomical sciences. Initial data on student responses in a pilot study indicate a strong support for continued laboratory dissection sessions and indicate that further integration of training in Gross Anatomy and Radiology, potentially through faculty-led small group study, could help to counter the curricular changes. We plan both to expand this study and to further develop methods to compensate for the reduction of Gross Anatomy in undergraduate medical education.