A broad perspective on anatomy education: celebrating teaching diversity and innovations

Anatomy education is an ever-evolving field. Innovative anatomy teaching practices are actualised by dedicated, professionally qualified academic staff who often devote their entire careers to the education of future clinicians. While traditional approaches to anatomy education focused on surgical training and knowledge-based competency,1 modern anatomy literacy must be applied to a wide variety of clinical disciplines. Thus current teaching approaches need to reflect this. To this end, modern topographic anatomy is combined with other anatomical sciences (ie, embryology, histology and neuroscience), and taught within integrated medical curricula in the context of clinical medicine, clinical skills, pathology and radiology. As with other pre-clinical and para-clinical fields (including biochemistry, physiology and immunology), there are clear benefits in engaging teaching staff with a variety of qualifications and expertise to maximise the effectiveness of the vertical and horizontal knowledge integration that is essential in modern medical curricula.

The highest quality of medical anatomy education is more likely to emerge from a diverse group of motivated and dedicated academic professional anatomy educators in combination with clinically based staff than from those knowledgeable only in a single discipline as has recently been proposed.1,2 Modern professional anatomy educators may have degrees in anatomy (including clinical anatomy), anthropology and education, medicine or other clinical degrees. Staff with a variety of expertise and experiences make for a richer student learning environment. Effective anatomy learning contexts include an evolutionary focus on the developmental underpinnings of the human form, a clinical focus on anatomical relationships, and even a focus on adult learning theories to improve retention of learned material. Ultimately, each of these educator-infused contexts can foster the critical thinking skills necessary for effective clinical reasoning. Underscoring a need for diverse, multifaceted anatomy educators, the literature suggests that medical education in clinical years often lacks a clear connection to basic sciences (of which anatomy is but one).3 This work suggests that a collaborative approach between scientists and clinicians is essential for improved learning of anatomy. In addition, the role of the modern anatomy educator in the digital age is to facilitate students’ knowledge acquisition and application; this illustrates how important it is that these teachers have expertise that extends beyond anatomical facts and includes pedagogical competency.

As well as infusing anatomy teaching with clinical relevance, anatomists are pioneering innovations in medical education. Some innovations include multimedia software, peer–peer learning of surface anatomy using body painting4 and the world’s first three-dimensional printed series of anatomical dissections.5 As anatomy education continues to evolve, the roles and backgrounds of anatomy educators should and will expand. Collaboration is essential for medical education and its educators to continue to meet the changing needs of both students and the medical profession in general.