[The museums of pathologic anatomy: a very much neglected sector of scientific museology, worth of reconsideration].
This brief work aims at drawing attention to the problems affecting museums of pathological anatomy and the possibility to revise their role and give them other purposes than the merely educational ones for which they are established. Current educational methods and tools, using sophisticated and modern audio-visual and multimedia systems, have been so thoroughly renewed that the preservation of anatomic specimens for exemplification and illustration is no longer a fundamental requirement. Clearly enough, Pathological Anatomy Museums need to change in order to meet new requirements and achieve new goals. Therefore, the creation as well as the revamping of a Museum should be based on the use of multimedia and interactive systems. These should include the collection of pictures of rare or peculiar cases as well as the possibility to propose pre-established educational programmes to students, while offering to scholars other programmes with different levels of difficulties and historical-documentary information. This is the approach followed by the experimental model implemented in our Institute which is presented in this work. Also, the Museum should be responsible for collecting and safeguarding rare anatomic material or specimens of particular interest from a historical-geographical and chronological point of view. The Museum should be a biologic archive from which information can be trapped for study and research works. For this reason, it should not be located only in one place, but the information and data therein contained should be made available, through a computer network, in the various centres and departments of Pathological Anatomy. Secondly, collections of dried osteologic materials should be properly preserved, since they are an important educational tool of great value for paleopathological studies. Finally, particular attention should be given to the oldest museums hosting collections of anatomic artworks such as wax impressions and casts, which, being the expression of a specific age and scientific attitude, are to be considered as a cultural heritage to be safeguarded.
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Istituto di Anatomia ed Istologia Patologica, Università di Genova.
D006801:Humans; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D009144:Museums; D010336:Pathology