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The Anatomical Society's core syllabus for anatomy (2003 and later refined in 2007) set out a series of learning outcomes that an individual medical student should achieve on graduation. The core syllabus, with 182 learning outcomes grouped in body regions, referenced in the General Medical Council's Teaching Tomorrow's Doctors, was open to criticism on the grounds that the learning outcomes were generated by a relatively small group of anatomists, albeit some of whom were clinically qualified. We have therefore used a modified Delphi technique to seek a wider consensus. A Delphi panel was constructed involving 'experts' (n = 39). The revised core syllabus of 156 learning outcomes presented here is applicable to all medical programmes and may be used by curriculum planners, teachers and students alike in addressing the perennial question: 'What do I need to know ?'

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This brief history of topographical anatomy begins with Egyptian medical papyri and the works known collectively as the Greco-Arabian canon, the time line then moves on to the excitement of discovery that characterised the Renaissance, the increasing regulatory and legislative frameworks introduced in the 18th and 19th centuries, and ends with a consideration of the impact of technology that epitomises the period from the late 19th century to the present day. This paper is based on a lecture I gave at the Winter Meeting of the Anatomical Society in Cambridge in December 2015, when I was awarded the Anatomical Society Medal.

The demise of anatomy teaching in the undergraduate medical curriculum has inevitably reduced the general level of applied anatomical knowledge displayed by junior doctors. Initiatives such as the European Working Time Directive have exacerbated the problem by reducing trainees' opportunities to acquire appropriate anatomical knowledge and clinical skills through workplace training. Medical Schools and postgraduate Colleges and Schools of Surgery must work together to design and deliver quality-assured courses in core and non-core anatomy, that cross the undergraduate/postgraduate interface. All medical students should learn a core syllabus of anatomy, agreed by a panel of clinicians and anatomists but delivered according to the pedagogic style favoured by individual Medical Schools. This core will define the anatomy, that all F1 doctors should know, particularly the anatomy associated with clinical procedures: it will be assessed across all years of the undergraduate medical programme. Medical Schools should also offer modules in non-core surgical and/or radiological anatomy, some of which may be designed and delivered in partnership with Colleges of Surgery and Radiology: these modules would be particularly attractive to students contemplating a career in surgery or interventional radiology, but would not be offered exclusively to this cohort. At present, the inadequate anatomical knowledge of Foundation doctors must be addressed by ensuring that early postgraduate training programmes include explicit, formal teaching in anatomy, for example, the Core Surgical Anatomy course currently being piloted at the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

The aim of this study was to establish a classification system for the acromioclavicular joint using cadaveric dissection and radiological analyses of both reformatted computed tomographic scans and conventional radiographs centred on the joint. This classification should be useful for planning arthroscopic procedures or introducing a needle and in prospective studies of biomechanical stresses across the joint which may be associated with the development of joint pathology. We have demonstrated three main three-dimensional morphological groups namely flat, oblique and curved, on both cadaveric examination and radiological assessment. These groups were recognised in both the coronal and axial planes and were independent of age.

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