112 - A Survey of Anatomy Educators Reveals Trends in Embryology Training and Curricula in North American Medical Schools

Poster Board Number: 112
There are separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – first hour
Even poster #s – second hour

Abstract Body : Introduction and Objective

Embryology is an established component of the anatomical sciences and is historically part of the core medical curriculum. However, little is known about the degree to which various embryological topics are addressed in curricula at US Medical schools and who is teaching these topics.

Materials and Methods

In this study we surveyed members of the American Association for Anatomy and American Association for Clinical Anatomy, specifically those teaching embryology within medical schools. The survey was designed to assess course structure, teaching methods, content covered, and time for each content area. Content coverage was assessed using the embryology competencies and topics described by Das et al in their 2018 “Guide to Competencies...” Further, respondents described factors that motivated their choices about what to teach. Seventy-three medical schools were represented in the survey (59 MD [41% of US MD programs], 13 DO [36% of US DO programs], 1 DPM [11% of US DPM programs]).

Results

Analysis of findings from the overall survey population include: 1) Most schools (70%) present embryology content by integration with another anatomical science; 2) Course time devoted to embryology topics was highly variable between institutions (overall average of 17.97 ± 11.72 hrs; 3) Digestive, Muscular, Cardiac, Nervous, Respiratory, and Reproductive systems had more course time than other body systems, in both normal and abnormal development; and 4) Perceived clinical importance consistently ranked as the most important of the 6 factors used to determine content coverage (mean rank 1.66 ± 0.80, p< 0.0001 vs. 4 of 5 other factors). Respondent data was further split between two demographic variables: MD vs DO schools, and years experience > average (19.7 yrs) vs years experience < 19.7 yrs. Comparing MD vs DO revealed several interesting findings: 1) Overall embryology course time did not differ between groups (MD: 17.5 hrs, DO: 18.8 hrs); 2) DO school respondents reported more frequently utilizing online resources, such as Learning Objective Highlight Videos and YouTube (increases between 24-35%). Comparing higher vs. lower experience revealed other key findings: 1) Members of the higher experience group were more likely to teach as individuals (Higher: 61.76%, Lower: 50%) and identify as embryologists (Higher: 23.53%, Lower: 5.26%); 2) Those with lower than average teaching experience were more likely to teach in integrated settings, use video based resources, and offer students more non-traditional study methods, such as drawing and clay modeling activities (>10% change for all of the above).

Conclusion/Significance

These results reveal patterns in educator characteristics and educational practices including that time is often not distributed evenly across body systems and newer educators are more likely to work in teams and incorporate more varied media in embryology instruction. These data provide a framework for medical educators and curriculum developers challenged by distilling this broad scientific field into a modern medical education context.