Is the structure of anatomy curriculum adequate for safe medical practice?
BACKGROUND
Anatomy has been considered a core subject within the medical education curriculum. In the current setting of ever-changing diagnostic and treatment modalities, the opinion of both students and trainers is crucial for the design of an anatomy curriculum which fulfils the criteria required for safe medical practice.


METHODS
Medical students, trainees and specialist trainee doctors and specialists from the London (England) area were surveyed to investigate the how curriculum changes have affected the relevance of anatomical knowledge to clinical practice and to identify recommendations for optimum teaching methods. The survey employed 5-point Likert scales and multiple-choice questions. Where the effect of training level was statistically significant (p < 0.05), post-hoc analysis was carried out using Mann-Whitney U tests. Significance levels were modified according to the Bonferroni method.


RESULTS
Two hundred and twenty-eight individuals completed the survey giving a response rate of 53%. Medical students, trainees and specialists all agreed (mean Likert score 4.51, 4.79, 4.69 respectively) that knowledge of anatomy is important for medical practice. Most of the trainees (88.4%) and specialists (81.3%) used dissection to learn anatomy, but only 61.4% of medical students used this approach. Dissection was the most commonly recommended approach for learning anatomy across all the groups (41.7%-69.3%).


CONCLUSIONS
Knowledge of anatomy is perceived to be important for safe clinical practice. Anatomy should be taught with other relevant system or clinical modules. Newer tools for anatomy teaching need further validation before incorporation into the curriculum.
Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, St Mary's Hospital Campus, London, UK. k.ahmed@imperial.ac.uk
Kamran
K
Ahmed
Simon
S
Rowland
Vanash
V
Patel
Reenam S
RS
Khan
Hutan
H
Ashrafian
David Ceri
DC
Davies
Ara
A
Darzi
Thanos
T
Athanasiou
Paraskevas A
PA
Paraskeva
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000715:Anatomy / Q000193:education*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008131:London; D008297:Male; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*