What Does a Modern Anatomist Look like? Current Trends in the Training of Anatomy Educators.

Anatomical sciences are foundational to the health professions, yet little is known about the qualifications of anatomy educators at the graduate and professional level in the United States. Moreover, there is concern that the number of qualified anatomy educators being trained may be insufficient to meet the growing demand posed by new and expanded programs in medicine and allied health specialties. The authors surveyed anatomists from across the country to (i) characterize the educational credentials of current anatomy educators and (ii) assess the perceived need for education-focused postdoctoral positions or formal mentorships to prepare anatomists for teaching-intensive faculty positions. To probe the survey responses more deeply, one-on-one interviews were conducted with eight individuals selected to represent a diverse sample of respondents in terms of institution, gender, and academic rank. Results indicate that 30-40% of educators at the graduate level and approximately 60% of those at the undergraduate level lack graduate coursework in histology, embryology, and neuroanatomy. Forty-five percent of respondents had completed a postdoctoral fellowship. Eighty-six percent replied "yes/maybe" to the question of whether an anatomy education postdoctoral fellowship would benefit doctoral graduates. The top 3 reasons for this recommendation were to (i) establish independent educational research, (ii) improve a publication record, and (iii) gain additional teaching experience. Notable weaknesses of education-focused postdoctoral training were related to finances, fear of exploitation, and undervaluing of teaching. Moving forward, postdoctoral fellowships and other forms of postgraduate training may represent a key strategy for training anatomists in the current educational climate. Anat Sci Educ 00: 000-000. © 2018 American Association of Anatomists.

Ask an anatomist: Identifying global trends, topics and themes of academic anatomists using twitter.

Social media (SoMe) is increasingly used in higher education (HE) to access knowledge and enable global communication. The SoMe platform Twitter® is particularly beneficial in these contexts because it is readily accessible, easily searchable (via hashtags) and global. Given these advantages, the twitter platform @AskAnatomist was created to foster a global weekly tweet chat, where students and academics can ask and address anatomy-related questions. The aim of this study was to identify themes arising in the early stages of the @AskAnatomy Twitter community to gain insights into current needs/key areas for academic anatomists, students, and other followers. A qualitative analysis of tweets including the hashtag #AnatQ, (the associated @AskAnatomist hashtag), was undertaken to achieve this aim. Thematic analysis revealed three core themes arising in the formative stages of the @AskAnatomist Twitter site: (1) anatomical education modalities, (2) specific anatomy content, and (3) research motivations. These themes reveal controversies within the field of anatomical sciences, areas for potential education resource improvement and research, as well as the humor of anatomists. Though the original intent of the @AskAnatomist site was to engage the general public in anatomy content and knowledge, tweet analysis suggests that academic anatomists were the primary active "tweeters". Interestingly, this analysis reveals that the @AskAnatomist site progressed into a web-based community of practice (CoP), suggesting an additional benefit of SoMe communities in the field of anatomy. Anat Sci Educ 11: 270-281. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.

The amount of information provided in articles published in clinical anatomy and surgical and radiologic anatomy regarding human cadaveric materials and trends in acknowledging donors/cadavers.

AIM: Appreciating the contribution of donor-cadavers to medical education is a well observed practice among anatomists. However, the appreciation of their contribution in research and scientific articles remains dubious. We aimed to evaluate how much data anatomists provide about specimens they have used and how frequently anatomists acknowledge their cadavers in published articles. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We evaluated all articles performed on human cadaveric specimens that were published in Clinical Anatomy and Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy between January 2011 and December 2015. We evaluated how much data on the demographics, preservation method(s), source, and ethical/legal permissions regarding cadavers were provided. We also evaluated the number of articles that acknowledged donor-cadavers. RESULTS: The majority of articles provided demographic data (age and sex) and preservation method used in the article. The source of the specimens was not mentioned in 45.6 % of the articles. Only 26.2 % of the articles provided a degree of consent and only 32.4 % of the articles reported some form of ethical approval for the study. The cadavers and their families were acknowledged in 17.7 % of the articles. We observed that no standard method for reporting data has been established. CONCLUSIONS: Anatomists should collaborate to create awareness among the scientific community for providing adequate information regarding donor-cadavers, including source and consent. Acknowledging donor-cadavers and/or their families should also be promoted. Scientific articles should be used to create a transparent relationship of trust between anatomists and their society.

The role of the anatomist in communicating Anatomy to a lay audience

The ability to communicate with the public is one of the essential tools by which an anatomist can enhance knowledge and understanding within the general population. Unfortunately, up until recently few scientists or health-care professionals have received much training in communicating science to a non-specialist audience, a surprising situation given the increasing demand from the public for more knowledge about health and science. The co-ordinators of undergraduate curricula have responded somewhat by increasing the time devoted to developing oral communication skills, however the ability to communicate by written means has not been widely explored. At a new medical school in the UK, we have introduced an assessment component directed at using the creation of lay statements as a strategy for providing accessible anatomically related information for a particular audience. Students were asked to respond to a letter from a member of the public regarding one of a number of clinical conditions by composing a short piece for a fictitious newspaper. When marked against a set of criteria, results showed that students had produced effective articles very much directed at the particular chosen audience. Students found the experience challenging yet one that enhanced their written communication skills and gave them the chance to think about what information to communicate. Overall this study demonstrates that such an assessment format is an effective way for students to start to develop professional competence through critical thinking and self-reflection and provides an opportunity for appreciating the skills necessary for adapting the written-word for a non-specialist audience (AU)

No disponible