Anatomical Sciences Education最新文献

The last thirty years have seen an increased presence of plastination companies within the anatomy profession and in the public domain. Engagement with the dissected human body, once almost exclusively accessible to healthcare professionals, has been commodified through public displays. As a result, plastination companies and their products have become a de facto "public face of anatomy," including commercial enterprises that manufacture and sell plastinated human tissues for educational purposes. The ongoing cultural normalization accompanying both the public engagement and commercial activities of plastination companies is ethically problematic. To counteract this normalization, this article provides detailed information on the history of plastination and its contested practices and analyzes the ethical concerns associated with the public display of human remains, including reflections on edutainment versus education. Also addressed is the commodification and commercialization of the deceased encouraged by these exhibits. Whereas for-profit plastination companies anonymize, objectify, and commodify the human body, the new ethos of anatomy education is focused on the shared humanity of body donors, learners, and educators and promotes humanistic educational concepts and practices, including in the use of ethically sourced human plastinates. Based on this history-informed ethical analysis, suggestions are provided for anatomists to help reverse this normalization around the commodification of the human body and instead make visible the public face of anatomy as a discipline based on robust ethical standards and respect for the dead. This will help ensure the practice of anatomy remains congruent with societal expectations and maintains its central role in healthcare education.

Three-dimensional visualization technologies (3DVTs) in anatomy education are popular as they offer a cost-effective and accessible alternative to cadaveric specimens. However, the literature presents conflicting results regarding the effectiveness of 3DVTs in facilitating learning compared with traditional models. This study explores whether displaying 3D models using a virtual reality (VR) headset induces a stereoscopic experience comparable to that of physical models, by examining the quality of learners' depth perception as they reference different modalities to complete a series of illustrations. Using a crossover design, biomedical illustration trainers were randomly assigned to two groups and completed three illustrations using different reference modalities (2D, prosection, VR model). Illustrations were scored by subject matter experts using a validated scoring rubric and the mean scores for each modality were compared. Following their VR experience, participants completed a cybersickness and user experience survey. Participants (n = 17) were confirmed to have stereovision and average visuospatial ability. A two-way repeated measure ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of modality, where illustrations produced while referencing the 2D cadaveric image and prosection scored higher than those created using the VR model. Notably, participants demonstrated reduced ability in depicting depth of anatomical layers when referencing the VR model. Contrary to our hypothesis, the VR models did not provide similar quality of depth perception as prosection. Qualitative data suggest this may be a result of methodological challenges that increase cognitive processing demands on learners, potentially hindering learners' ability to interpret visuospatial cues.

Decreased contact hours have led to investigation of new visualization methods for anatomy education. As a result, novel methods of three-dimensional modeling continue to proliferate. Photogrammetry has been utilized recently to construct 3D digital models from human body donors. The purpose of this study was to explore the benefits of photogrammetry and its potential in improving student performance in a first-year preclinical medical renal and genitourinary systems course. All 166 students enrolled in the course were invited to participate in an active learning session that consisted of a pre-test, renal anatomy review lecture, and collaborative time spent reviewing the digital models and clinical cases. Students completed the learning session by taking a post-test. One hundred and forty-seven students participated in the research study, and students scored significantly higher on the post-test (M = 4.54, SD = 1.78) compared to the pre-test (M = 3.58, SD = 1.83), p < 0.001. Students' scores on the post-test accounted for anywhere from 3% to 8% of the variability in performance on the anatomy questions of the bimonthly class exam, overall performance on the bimonthly class exam, and the board exam. These findings suggest that the use of three-dimensional digital models and clinical cases positively impacted student learning immediately and that these improvements are stable. Future investigation into the application and efficacy of photogrammetry as a component of active learning is warranted.

Lazarus MD, Sarkar M, Palermo C, Soh S-E, Farlie MK. Expanding worldviews on psychometric analysis of measurement tools in health professions education and research. Anat Sci Educ. 2025;18:838–851. https://doi.org/10.1002/ase.70053

In the originally published article, reference 30 was incorrect. The correct reference is shown here.

30. Uher J. Psychometrics is not measurement:unraveling a fundamental misconception in quantitative psychology and the complex network of its underlying fallacies. J Theor Philos Psychol. 2021;41(1):58–84. https://doi.org/10.1037/teo0000176

We apologize for this error.

Many US body donation programs impose restrictions on donations based on body size. To examine the body habitus criteria related to body weight, height, proportion, and other size factors in United States body donation programs (USBDP), 127 USBDP publicly available websites listed by the University of Florida were reviewed. Since this study focuses on publicly available website information, it may not capture the characteristics of all programs. Eleven percent of the USBDP websites with public-facing criteria exclusively listed numeric restrictions, while 24.4% included both descriptive and quantitative (numeric) terminology. The majority of websites with public-facing criteria (90.6%) imposed a weight-related restriction, with 55.1% providing descriptive (i.e., non-numeric) terms. The most common body mass index (BMI) cutoff (30 kg/m²) could disqualify some U.S. adults from donating, as the average BMI in the United States for adult females is 29.8 and for adult males is 29.4. Fourteen programs offered explanations of their descriptive or numeric weight/BMI restrictions. As language evolves to better describe and reflect body habitus, keeping up to date with best practice and community preferences may help when designing donor criteria. Public-facing information about body habitus criteria for donation may limit the representativeness of body habitus used in anatomical education and research. The implications of this on anatomical education and weight bias in students require more research.

Engaging students and fostering interactions can be a challenge in large enrollment, foundational-level, undergraduate anatomy classes. Despite the active learning environment of the anatomy laboratory, students often struggle to find study partners or even speak to fellow learners in a large classroom. This is a missed opportunity for our learners to socialize and work with others to build a learning community and sense of belonging. To connect these learners, we outline the creation of a board game that could be played multiple times throughout the semester during open laboratory review sessions as we encounter different regions of the body. The game, The Anatomy Adventures of Knowledge Knight, takes our players through a kingdom where they must use their anatomy expertise to overcome many challenges. In this article, we discuss game development as we consider the learner population in a large enrollment, hybrid, regional anatomy course with hundreds of students. Goals include not only covering lecture objectives via leveled questions based on the game board, but also story points and mnemonics to support player interactions. We also highlight accessibility and inclusion efforts in the creation of the game board and materials. This article discusses considerations for other educators who plan to create their own board game, as well as providing the game materials for instructors to use, with flexible templates for broad application.