Confronting the challenges of anatomy education in a competency-based medical curriculum during normal and unprecedented times (COVID - 19 pandemic): Gagne, Peyton and Mento to the rescue.

BACKGROUND: Anatomy is considered one of the keystones of undergraduate medical education. However, recently, there has been drastic reduction, both in the gross anatomy teaching hours and its context; decrease in the number of trained anatomists; and an increase in the costs of human cadavers, causing a diminution of cadaveric dissection in Anatomy teaching. OBJECTIVE: To address these challenges there is an ardent need for a pedagogical framework such that anatomy education can be disseminated through active-learning principles, within a fixed timeframe; using a small team of anatomists; employing small number of cadaveric specimens (for live on-site sessions) and using collaborative learning principles (when anatomy education is delivered through distance learning modality, as is the case for the situation during the COVID-19 pandemic). METHODS: Here, we have blueprinted a pedagogical framework blending the instructional design models of Gagne's nine-events of instruction with Peyton's four-step approach. The framework's applicability was validated through the delivery of anatomical concepts, using an exemplar from the Head and Neck course during normal and COVID - 19 mandated lockdown periods, employing the archetype of Frey's Syndrome. Preliminary evaluation of framework was pursued using student feedback and end of course feedback responses. Efficiency of the framework in knowledge transfer was also appraised. RESULTS: The blueprinted instructional plan designed to implement the pedagogical framework was successfully executed in the dissemination of anatomy education, employing a limited number of cadaveric specimens (during normal times) and a social media application integrated 'interactome' strategy (during the mandated COVID-19 lockdown). Students' response to the framework was positive. However, reluctance was expressed by majority of concerned faculty in adopting the framework for anatomy education. To address this aspect a strategy has been designed using Mento's 12-step change management model. The long-term benefits for any medical school to adopt the blended pedagogical framework have also been explicated applying Bourdieu's Theory of Practice. Additionally, through the design of a 'social-media application interactome model', the framework's applicability in delivery of anatomy education/content during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemia has also been founded. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the study effectively tackles some of the contemporary key challenges associated with the delivery of corpus of anatomy content in medical education during normal and unprecedented times. CLINICALTRIAL: This is not a clinical trial and therefore does not have a trial registration.