Body of Knowledge: Advancing Gross Anatomy

UAB Medicine, Fall 2010

Traditional approaches to gross anatomy face one key challenge: perspective. no matter how talented the teacher or how precise the dissection, medical students are always on the outside looking in.

But that view is changing at the School of Medicine at UAB, prompted by the advent of the school’s integrated curriculum, which focuses on organ systems and surgical approaches instead of discipline-based blocks, and the rise of digital technologies in medical practice.

Today medical students are just as likely to use a screen as a scalpel in anatomy class, where radiographic imaging and CT and MRI scans add an inside-out perspective to the classical, clinical approach. “We try to integrate radiographic images side by side with the anatomy,” says Carrie Elzie, Ph.D., director of the gross anatomy laboratory and assistant professor of cell biology. “Because physicians work with so much medical imaging nowadays, learning spatial relationships is as much a part of anatomy as the study of individual body structures.”

Elzie is incorporating additional technology that can help students improve their understanding of the human body. A new band saw makes cross sections that mimic those in radiographic imaging. She also is collaborating with the Department of Radiology to acquire ultrasound equipment. “Students could do ultrasounds on each other in a room right next to the anatomy lab, learn about the organs of the body, and then go into the lab and get an appreciation for what they saw on the screen,” she says.

Elzie also relies on creative low-tech tactics to make the subject engaging and more personal for students. While the veins of the brain can be small and hard to see in dissection, “the students can put on swim caps and draw the veins on each others’ heads,” Elzie explains. “It’s an active learning strategy. This year we also did face-painting to explain the nerves associated with the face.”

Another change in the curriculum is the inclusion of fourth-year students in the anatomy lab, where they can review the anatomy related to their chosen specialties. “Students appreciate it as a refresher course that will benefit them in their residencies,” Elzie says. “And as part of that elective class, they also serve as teaching assistants for the first- and second-year courses. So in addition to doing their own dissections, they are in the lab with the newer students to impart their knowledge. Because the best way to learn really is through teaching.”

Patient Teachers

Elzie thinks of the anatomical donors in the lab as her colleagues. “They teach just as much as I do,” she says. For first-year medical students, the donors serve as their very first patients.

“The students meet their donors and learn about who they are before they make the first cut,” Elzie says. Then, at the end of the anatomy course, each class participates in a memorial service for their donors, showing their appreciation to the families whose generosity has significantly benefited their medical education. “The students use the same donors throughout an entire academic year, and they get tied to them. But they also realize that in that year, the families haven’t really had closure yet, and it’s a huge sacrifice for the families to be a part of this,” Elzie explains. “There is a high level of respect and appreciation in our lab.”