Illustrator-anatomist-clinician triad based pedagogical model in anatomy education: An auxiliary resource amidst lack of hands-on human dissection

Abstract

Adherence to the highest ethical standards is mandatory while handling precious human tissues received through the altruistic act of body donation. In 2019, misconduct at the Body Donation Center in Paris led to its closure. This adversely affected the hands-on human dissection sessions within the anatomy education program at Université Paris-Saclay. Consequently, the anatomy education program needed to be modified to bridge the gap between theoretical anatomy knowledge and its reinforcement by hands-on human dissection. Anatomy educators at Université Paris-Saclay designed an “illustrator-anatomist-clinician” triad-based pedagogical model, which was incorporated as a core component of an elective module for third-year medical students. This model involves a combination of live illustration, dissection-demonstration, and clinical correlation of anatomical details of selected regions of the human body. An illustrator presents and interprets anatomical detail as the anatomist reveals these structures in a stepwise dissection approach, and a clinician completes the triad by presenting clinical cases relevant to the respective anatomical region with their surgical and radiological details. The present study aims to describe the structure, implementation, and outcome of this triad-based pedagogical model. It may be applicable to other anatomy education programs that face access problems to hands-on human dissection for various reasons and demonstrate its feasibility as a resource when human dissection is not available.