Humaira Gulnaz, Ghulam Mujtaba, Verda Baig, Sarah Khalid.
Shortcomings of Current Anatomy Teaching Methodologies in Medical Schools and Possible Avenues of Improvement.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;12(2):558-60.

Background: Medical Education is undergoing a very fast-paced paradigm shift from the laboriously extensive teaching of basic sciences to an integrated, multi-disciplinary, dynamic and clinically oriented approach. Anatomy as part of the medical school curriculum is a challenging but vastly relevant subject and the current method of teaching limits it to the first two years of undergraduate training. The usefulness of such an approachis getting questionable in the wake of new advances in the fields of Medicine, Surgery and Imaging. This study analyses and draws conclusions from the limitations of the current teaching methodologies and possible improvements by evaluating the questionnaires duly filled by undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as the clinical and preclinical teaching faculty. Methods: A questionnaire was devised exploring specific views on current anatomy teaching, modernization and clinical relevance of the course content. It was filled after informed consent by three groups of respondents: undergraduates, post graduates and teaching faculty. It consisted of free test, binomial, and 5-point Lickert scale responses. Results: Most notably, the results establish that 28% of undergraduate students, 36.36% of postgraduate students and 38.46% of teaching faculty consider lengthy course content a contributing factor to the volatility of anatomy. 38% of undergraduates 54.54% of postgraduates and 69.23% of teaching faculty proposed that anatomy should be taught in combination with clinical subjects in a vertically integrated manner. Conclusion: Anatomy needs to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of medical education to stay clinically relevant and useful. Needless to say, a good understanding of anatomy makes for a better clinician, and it is vital to efficiently utilize the subject’s capability of acting as a gel between pure science and clinical utility.

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