Discovering the Value of Anatomy Laboratory Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic from The Perspective of Three Medical Schools’ Experience

ABSTRACT

The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) outbreak adversely affected medical school education and drastically reduced in-person learning, specifically affecting gross anatomy laboratory dissection. Depending on the academic calendar schedule, some schools were interrupted in the middle of anatomy teaching while others had more lead time to prepare but schools suddenly faced an imposed demand for a transition to distance learning. SUNY Downstate had its anatomy education interrupted due to the Covid-19 shut down. To gap the previous laboratory experience of students and complete the semester anatomy curriculum, a series of dissected abdominal videos were created and distributed to all first-year medical students (n=208). The video-based curriculum and the current student experience taking anatomy without cadaveric dissections were assessed via pre/post-tests and a five-question survey. A paired single tailed t-test comparing student responses (n=164) in the pre- versus post-test was statistically significant (P < 0.002) while 92% of students (n=136) reported that their previous time dissecting prepared them to learn through videos without the benefit of hands-on dissection. Icahn School of Medicine adopted digital Grant's Dissector utilizing their accompanying narrated videos. Faculty voiced over the narration, however, permitting emphasis of material, directing pacing of course, and tying content to lecture and physical exams. Complete anatomy was used to augment the experience, with 3D virtual dissections and enhance the visualization of the structures, however the videos remained as the driver of content delivery. Weill Cornell Medicine created, and customized anatomy prosected material videotaping the show and tell sessions integrating powerpoint slides to tie in lecture content and clinical correlates. Results from all three schools highlight the technical success of implementing an anatomy video-based curriculum in response to COVID-19. Survey findings describe a unique cohort of students who were compelled to participate in a video-based curriculum after having learned anatomy in a donor body laboratory environment and student performance on summative exams in general equaled or exceeded scores from previous years. Overall, anatomy education through videos, digital platforms, and apps can offer a reliable stop-gap solution in the absence of traditional cadaveric dissection in a short-term, provisional model. However, the experience of learning anatomy from a human body in laboratory is irreplaceable and the future now seems to point to a combination of these modalities, and others, such as virtual reality or augmented reality, yet to be adapted and customized to our educational settings.