Anatomy Education Environment among Pre-Clinical Medical Students in Universiti Putra Malaysia Using Anatomy Education Environment Measurement Inventory

Anatomy is the foundation of medicine. Having adequate anatomy knowledge would improve medical students’ comprehension of pathology and patient management. The evolving scenario in anatomy education has created a changing educational environment in medical schools. Since educational environment influence the students’ motivation and ability to learn, it is pertinent to measure anatomy education environment as a feedback mechanism tool for further improvement in the curriculum. This study was performed to measure pre-clinical medical students’ perception of the anatomy education environment in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) by using a validated 25-item inventory, known as the Anatomy Education Environment Measurement Inventory (AEEMI). The inventory was distributed online to 171 first- and second-year medical students to measure their perception of anatomy teachers and instructors, anatomy knowledge, their intrinsic interest and efforts in learning anatomy, anatomy learning resources and histology practical facilities. The analysis revealed that most of the items show “positive area” indicated by score of more than four. The first-year medical students showed a significantly higher perception of the anatomy education environment compared to the second-year medical students (p ≤ 0.05). However, both cohorts perceived an “area of improvement” for histology practical facilities (score of 3 to 3.99). In conclusion, the students were pleased with the anatomy education experience in UPM except for histology practical facilities that may require further improvement. The use of virtual microscopy in histology teaching would be a good alternative to overcome the problem in histology teaching in UPM, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Investigating the Benefits of Integrated Anatomy Instruction: A Cognitive Load Theory Perspective

Declining anatomy knowledge of junior doctors has been linked to clinical error judgement and medicolegal litigation. To overcome the problem, anatomy educators have introduced many teaching initiatives during undergraduate study that might promote anatomy knowledge acquisition and retention, including anatomy teaching using integrated instruction. Anatomy instruction can be integrated in terms of its contents and teaching approach. Learning from integrated anatomy instruction allows students to relate anatomy subjects with different subdisciplines and to comprehend related clinical context for future application. On the other hand, the integrated approach for anatomy teaching caters to different types of learning styles, therefore ensuring optimal learning. Nevertheless, causal relationships between integrated anatomy instruction and student learning has never been explicitly explored. Hence, this article aims to unearth the elements of integrated anatomy teaching that promote learning through instructional design theory, namely, cognitive load theory (CLT).

Dissections or Prosections; Which Method has a Better Impact on Sustainable Gross Anatomy Knowledge?

Background: Two groups of medical students in their final year were tested on the key concepts of gross anatomy using a question paper that included true false type questions and identification of anatomical line diagrams. These two batches of students followed a dissection based curriculum and a newly introduced prosections based curriculum at the beginning of their medical education respectively. The prosections based curriculum brought with it a significant cut down on the in-class teaching and learning activities when compared to the old curriculum. The objective of the study was to establish which method was more effective at establishing a core of anatomy knowledge that could be recalled after a considerable amount of time. This would in turn reflect how much of anatomy knowledge one would possess when they start to practice medicine as a newly qualified doctor and also embark on a postgraduate training programme.Methods: The two groups were subjected without prior warning to a question paper that comprised six questions, each with five True/False statements and four questions on identification and labelling of anatomical line diagrams.Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the marks obtained for the true false type questions between the two groups (p=0.076), but the prosections group obtained higher marks for the diagram identification questions (p = 0.022).Conclusions: Therefore, it was concluded that a prosection based curriculum when compared to a dissection based curriculum was equally effective at establishing a core of gross anatomy knowledge in a considerably lesser amount of time.

Front-loading of anatomy content has no effect on long-term anatomy knowledge retention among physical therapy students: a prospective cohort study

Background Information learned over a longer period of time has been shown to result in better long-term knowledge retention than information learned over a shorter period of time. In order to address multiple curricular goals, the timing and spacing of anatomy content within the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program at our institution recently changed from a very spaced to a very compressed format. The purpose of the present study was to assess differences in anatomy knowledge retention that might have been impacted by this change. The research hypothesis was that students receiving spaced instruction would have significantly better anatomy knowledge retention than students receiving massed instruction. Methods Participants consisted of two cohorts of DPT students that both received 45 contact hours of anatomy lecture and 90 contact hours of anatomy lab. The LONG cohort experienced anatomy through a lecture and lab taught over a 30-week, 2 semester period as separate courses. In contrast, the SHORT cohort took their anatomy lecture and lab concurrently over one 10-week semester. A pre-test was administered on the first day of their anatomy lecture course, and a post-test was administered to each cohort 18 months after completion of their last anatomy exam. Results After controlling for age-related differences in the two groups, no significant differences in mean pre-test, post-test, or percentage improvement were found between cohorts (p = 0.516; 0.203; and 0.152, respectively). Conclusion These findings refute the hypothesis and show that both spaced and massed instruction in these cohorts resulted in the same level of long-term anatomy knowledge retention.

Perineal Management and Episiotomy Practice in Chile

Episiotomy is a common intervention used during the second stage of delivery. Current use of this procedure is restricted to certain births due to several complications. Almost all births in Chile are delivered by a gynecologist or a midwife in the public or private health system where episiotomy is performed. The objective of this study is to identify strengths and weakness in aspects of perineal management and episiotomy practice among obstetric health care providers with the purpose of promoting practice assessment and updating skills and competencies. Design: Questionnaire-based-cross-sectional study. Method: Anonymous questionnaire applied to gynecologists and midwives of public and private hospitals, between October and December 2019 using the Instrument designed by Cornet et al. addressing questions such as affiliation, number of births/year, knowledge of anatomy, knowledge of episiotomy, knowledge of perineal tear, competence in perineal repair, and presence of expert in perineal trauma at their unit. Results: 189 surveys responded, 51% from midwives and 37.6% from doctors. 71% of total were trained at their medical or midwifery schools and 69% during postgraduate internships. Episiotomy practice criteria: 19% always in primigravida patients and 14,3% always in premature deliveries. Majority of professionals, 79.4% with less than 100 deliveries a year had incorrect answers about depth or sphincter tear prevention technique. Conclusions: The majority of professionals indicated insufficient training capacities in relation to episiotomy techniques. Undergraduate programs should strength training on this intervention, national guidelines must include routine episiotomy performance in order to unify criteria.

Did Andreas Vesalius’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica and/or Juan Valverde’s Historia De La Composicion Del Cuerpo Humano Really Influence the Anatomy Knowledge in the Ottoman Empire? A Preliminary Study on Shams al-Dīn ʿItāqī’s Tashrīh al-Abdān*

Aim of this study was to determine whether Vesalius and Valverde influenced Shams al-Dīn ʿItāqī considering the figures and several statements in Tashrīḥ al-Abdān wa Tarjamān Qibāla Faylasūfān. The statements and figures in illustrated copies of ʿItāqī’s book were examined and compared to those in Galen’s, Avicenna’s, Vesalius’s, and Valverde’s works, then the findings were evaluated. ʿItāqī’s book contains some figures only from Vesalius and/or Valverde’s works, but there is no new explanation related to issues such as the mandible, the sacrum, the rete mirabile, and the uterus. The Latin edition of Valverde’s book published in 1607 was probably the source of the Western-originated illustrations in the manuscript Hüsrev Paşa, Nr. 464 and of all the Western-based illustrations, except for the female figure in the manuscript of Istanbul University, Turkish Manuscripts, TY 2662. Spanish and/or Italian and/or Latin (1589) editions of Valverde’s book were the sources of most of the Western-originated illustrations, except the human skeleton figure in the manuscript of Prof. Uzluk’s personal collection. The information given by the works of Vesalius and Valverde has not influenced the explanations of ʿItāqī. ʿItāqī wrote his book according to the classical anatomical knowledge in the Islamic world of his era and he added Eastern- and Western-originated figures to his book to support/strengthen his statements. Or ʿItāqī work Tasrīḥ al-Abdān originally contained no illustrations. However, later, scribes/copiers added Eastern- and Western-originated anatomical figures to the book to support/strengthen statements at different times.

Developing Innovative Models for Learning in Social Isolation Environments: Exemplifying it for the Bone Anatomy Study

Anatomy knowledge is essential for many professionals, such as: doctors, nurses, biologists, biochemical, physiotherapists and any professional in physical education. Over the years, the main anatomical teaching method, the dissection of cadavers becomes less common due to issues related to high costs associated with the maintenance of laboratories, ethical aspects and health risks related to exposure to formaldehyde vapor. This factor was maximized with the Covid-19 pandemic, since presentials accesses to laboratories have become unviable. In order to offer a complementary tool for the teaching of bone anatomy, we propose in this work a serious game in augmented reality, based on controls by analysis of manual gestures, to assist the learning of this discipline.