“Keeping It Fresh:
The Challenge of An Old Subject (Anatomy), Middle
Aged Professors, and Young Students”
Disclaimer: We are only speaking from our own experience, and
don’t presume that our experiences would apply to other
courses
Old Subject :Anatomy
• Tell me, is there anything NEW in
Anatomy?
– Subtext=?? (you must be so bored)
• How do you manage to maintain
interest in teaching it after SO very
many years?
– Subtext=?? (you must be so boring)
Conroy family tally
33 years of teaching (67 Conroy-years)
2008 is our 26th year here at WUSM
- will put us over the 4000 student- mark
Why do we continue to find it
stimulating?
Three elements:
– The discipline itself and its intrinsic importance
– The environment
• Students
• Administration (OMSE)
• Our Department head very supportive
– Our superb colleagues
• 5 of us in the course ALL THE TIME.
Despite the implication (and
occasionally voiced opinion) that
Anatomy is a moribund field, the
centrality of anatomical knowledge
to medical education is widely
acknowledged
Postgraduate Residency Program Survey :
adequacy of Gross Anatomy preparation
• Diagnostic Radiology
84% (172/204)
• General Surgery
84% (224/266)
• Emergency Medicine
83% (93/112)
• Family Practice
71% (312/440)
Clinical Anatomy 12:55-65 (1999)
How important is the knowledge of Gross
Anatomy to your residency program?
How well prepared are first year residents
in their knowledge of Gross Anatomy?
Anatomy Curriculum hours.
Survey comparing 1991 and 1997
The average number of curriculum hours assigned
to gross anatomy (national data)
1991 …………………. 190 hours
1997 …………………..165 hours
WUMS hours for Gross Anatomy
140 hours
So- the Challenges
• COURSE = It’s long
– 40 lectures (10/40 are given by clinical faculty)
– 3 exams (these take a lot of time…more later)
– 100 lab contact hours
• FACULTY : The WAY we teach
• Aggressively interactive use of lab time: provocative,probing
teaching style
• Liberal use of demonstrations in lab and lecture
• MUCH direct engagement and interaction with students
• Four month intense experience for students and faculty
• “Three-ring circus”
• Who will be the next generation of teachers?
Paradoxically, a feature of
teaching Anatomy that might
appear to make it unattractive
(ie amount of time) results in
faculty feeling highly
connected to and invested in
the course
Old Subject :Anatomy
• So, IS there anything NEW in Anatomy?
– Human variation means that there’s always something new
to be learned– it takes DECADES to produce a really
knowledgeable anatomist
– New visualization methods- explosion of IMAGING
techniques emphasizing anatomical structures
– Cadaver is window into medical progress over the last three
decades: new procedures; much new to be learned
• How do we manage to maintain interest in
teaching it after so many years?
• Immediacy of satisfaction: We SEE students’ progress
– THEIR AWE over seeing a human heart, brain etc…
• BEYOND ANATOMY: introducing students to the beginning
Most important is a sense of
CONSTANT LEARNING
• students and faculty
• clinical faculty introduce new perspectives:
– 10 superb clinical lecturers
– Radiology residents presenting conferences
– Surgeons come to lab
• advances in surgical techniques are seen in
the dissection lab
Prostheses……….old and new
thyroplasty
Stents and filters,pacemakers
Biventricular pacer
IVC stent
Middle Aged Professors and Young
Students
How should we be teaching?
How they learn (we think)
– Primacy of electronic media and computer-based learning
methods
visual and interactive
– Animations
– Weblinks and images
– Flashcards
But…..Our observations
– Despite students’ facility, familiarity, and appreciation of
interactive, IT features , they explicitly comment
positively on the value of face-to-face interactions
(teachers at the dissecting table), lab demonstrations
and socratic, interactive, visually engaging lecturing
(duct-tape,
CHALK-BOARD coloring-in sessions– and even……
powerpoints?????)
*Course evaluations for other courses often voice similar opinions
Our keeping it fresh is facilitated by
and new
^
Keeping it fresh???
• Pleasure in students’ progress
• Clear sense of expanding one’s own
knowledge base
• Refine knowledge by learning material
through different prisms (3D anatomy,
developmental biology)
• Camaraderie ……….we have FUN
• But………..it IS exhausting……
Are we offering any prescriptions?
• Nothing more than our experiences, which might/might not be
applicable—
– More time!!!! (sure………..)
– ****Demonstrations and interaction
• We continually reflect on the course and make year-to-year
adjustments
Our course is always a work in progress
• Current focus of attention
Exams
– The amount of faculty time they take
– Their value to students
– The sense that there might be a better way to get at what
we need to know
• In the face of limited course time, do exams represent
time taken away from learning?