Student perspectives of imaging anatomy in undergraduate medical education

Abstract

Radiological imaging is gaining relevance in the acquisition of competencies in clinical anatomy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of medical students on teaching/learning of imaging anatomy as an integrated part of anatomical education. A questionnaire was designed to evaluate the perceptions of second-year students participating in a clinical anatomy course over three consecutive academic years. A principal component analysis was used to evaluate the dimensionality of the questionnaire. The variables were summarized using frequencies, mean, median, 25th percentile, 75th percentile, minimum, and maximum. The results demonstrated that students felt the teaching of imaging anatomy influenced learning in the clinical anatomy course (mean = 4.5, median = 5.0) and subsequent clinical courses (mean = 4.4, median = 4.0). Regarding the imaging techniques used in the demonstration of anatomical structures, computed tomography (median = 5.0) and magnetic resonance imaging (median = 5.0) were highly rated. Students suggested the use of additional support material (37.6%) and favored a more practical approach. In conclusion, the results of this work highlight the value of imaging anatomy in learning human anatomy. Students' comments pointed out a need to focus teaching/learning programs toward a more practical rather than theoretical approach as well as a need to provide a better fit between sectional anatomy and clinical cases using imaging anatomy. In order to provide an optimal learning environment to students, it also seems important to create improved media material as an additional resource tool.

Integration of medical imaging including ultrasound into a new clinical anatomy curriculum

“…Our findings show students rated practical classes in radiology and ultrasound consistently higher than the corresponding imaging lectures. Machado and colleagues reported similar findings, with practical classes being rated significantly higher than lectures by the medical students (Machado et al, ). The majority of students suggested no changes to lectures, indicating that they were good and clear.…”

“…The early introduction of radiology in medical schools was also shown to increase students' interest in radiology as a specialty and made them more likely to consider radiology as a career (Branstetter et al, ). Curricula where the use of medical imaging was integrated with cadaveric anatomy and multimedia/ online materials led to a demonstrated improvement in students' performance in anatomy and radiology (Stanford et al, ; Phillips et al, ) and increased student interest in the discipline of anatomy (Pabst et al, ; Machado et al, ). Ultrasound was also used successfully by other medical schools as part of their anatomy curricula (Teichgraber et al, ; Brown et al, ; Griksaitis et al, ; Stringer et al, ; Swamy and Searle, ; Dreher et al, ).…”

Redeeming dissection course for medical undergraduates by compact structured schedules and frequent in-course-assessments

“…The faculty of anatomy at the University of North Texas Health Science Centre (UNTHSC) has developed a The time constraint has compelled the traditional teacher to only teach anatomy that is going to be clinically relevant to them in their subsequent practice 8 . The dissection room teaching when complimented by structured tests would make the student focused for learning and enthusiastically participate in dissection within weekly ICAs showed significantly improved summative marks, compared with those who did not 13 .…”

“…Hands-on educational experiences on cadavers can also stimulate student interest, increase knowledge retention and enhance development of clinical skills 3 . With increasing number of medical colleges and increased demand for cadavers together with technological advancement, utility of dissection has generated discussions, more so in the recent past, with favours growing towards the use of multimedia tools, computer software packages, models including plastinated specimens and imaging techniques [4][5][6][7][8] . The proponents of latter methods substantiate the views on the continuation of practice of dissection for and against rather convincingly 9 .…”

The student's dilemma, liver edition: Incorporating the sonographer's language into clinical anatomy education

“…New radiological imaging modalities are rapidly gaining applicability in medical education as tools for addressing basic science questions and for supplementing traditional modes of learning (Chowdhury et al, 2008;Machado et al, 2013). One such modality is focused ultrasound, which is used by nonradiology specialists to ask targeted clinical questions (Moore and Copel, 2011).…”