In the summer of 2009, we began full body computed tomography (CT) scanning of the pre-embalmed cadavers in the University of Michigan Medical School (UMMS) dissection lab. We theorized that implementing web-based, self-guided clinical cases based on postmortem CT (PMCT) scans would result in increased student appreciation for the clinical relevance of anatomy, increased knowledge of cross-sectional anatomy, and increased ability to identify common pathologies on CT scans. The PMCT scan of each cadaver was produced as a DICOM dataset, and then converted into a Quicktime movie file using Osirix software. Clinical cases were researched and written by the authors, and consist of at least one Quicktime movie of a PMCT scan surrounded by a novel navigation interface. To assess the value of these clinical cases we surveyed medical students at UMMS who are currently using the clinical cases in their coursework. Students felt the clinical cases increased the clinical relevance of anatomy (mean response 7.77/10), increased their confidence finding anatomical structures on CT (7.00/10), and increased their confidence recognizing common pathologies on CT (6.17/10). Students also felt these clinical cases helped them synthesize material from numerous courses into an overall picture of a given disease process (7.01/10). These results support the conclusion that our clinical cases help to show students why the anatomy they are learning is foundational to their other coursework. We would recommend the use of similar clinical cases to any medical school utilizing cadaver dissection as a primary teaching method in anatomy education.

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We have developed a novel method of introducing radiology education and clinical relevance into a gross anatomy course. Each summer before the beginning of gross anatomy for the first year medical students, we collect the medical histories of the body donors that will be used in the dissection labs. This past summer, we also collected whole body CT scans of each donor. We converted these scans to QuickTime movies for use on our course website (http://anatomy.med.umich.edu). These whole body CT scan movies were displayed using a novel web interface that is extremely user friendly and interactive. Selected movies were associated with relevant clinical anatomy teaching points as well as clinically oriented quiz questions. The clinical teaching points correlate with and emphasize key anatomical knowledge within the M1 curriculum. A web‐based evaluation form was used to collect student opinion on the effectiveness of this method of presenting radiology data sets in correlation with dissection of the bodies from which these data sets come. This web‐based presentation of whole body CT data correlated with whole body anatomical dissection provides a unique method to introduce first year medical students to radiology and clinical relevance of anatomy.