Perceptions of Anatomy: Critical Components in the Clinical

Department of Surgery, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State Hershey College ofMedicine, Hershey, PennsylvaniaThe evolution in undergraduate medical school curricula has significantly impacted anat-omy education. This study investigated the perceived role of clinical anatomy and eval-uated perceptions of medical students’ ability to apply anatomical knowledge in theclinic. The aim of this study was to develop a framework to enhance anatomical educa-tional initiatives. Unlike previous work, multiple stakeholders (clinicians, medical stu-dents, and academic anatomists) in anatomy education were evaluated. Participants com-pleted an eleven-point Likert scale survey written by the investigators. Responses fromboth clinical educators and medical students at Penn State Milton S. Hershey MedicalCenter and College of Medicine suggest that medical students are perceived as ill-pre-pared to transfer anatomy to the clinic. Although some areas of patient managementdiffer in relevancy to anatomical education, there are areas of clinical care which wereuniformly ranked as relying heavily on anatomical knowledge (imaging and diagnosticstudies, physical examination, and arrival at correct diagnosis) by a variety of clinicalspecialists. Our results suggest a need for advanced anatomy courses to be taught coinci-dental with medical students’ clinical education. Development of these courses wouldoptimally rely on input from both clinicians and academic anatomists, as both cohortsrated clinical anatomy similarly (P 0.05). Additionally, we hypothesize that preclinicalstudents’ application of anatomy would be enhanced if clinical context was derived fromareas of clinical care which rely heavily on anatomy, whereas courses designed foradvanced medical students will benefit from anatomical context focused on specialtyspecific aspects of clinical care identified in this study.