The role of medical museums in contemporary medical education.

From the early 19th century until the most recent two decades, open-space and satellite museums featuring anatomy and pathology collections (collectively referred to as "medical museums") had leading roles in medical education. However, many factors have caused these roles to diminish dramatically in recent years. Chief among these are the great advances in information technology and web-based learning that are currently at play in every level of medical training. Some medical schools have abandoned their museums while others have gradually given away their museums' contents to devote former museum space to new classrooms, lecture halls, and laboratories. These trends have accelerated as medical school enrollment has increased and as increasing interest in biological and biomedical research activities have caused medical schools to convert museum space into research facilities. A few medical schools, however, have considered the contents of their museums as irreplaceable resources for modern medicine and medical education and the space these occupy as great environments for independent and self-directed learning. Consequently, some medical schools have updated their medical museums and equipped them with new technologies. The Anatomical Museum of Leiden University Medical Center in The Netherlands and the Medical Museum of Kawasaki Medical School in Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan, are two examples of such upgraded museums. Student surveys at Leiden University have indicated that all students (100%) found audio-guided museum tours to be useful for learning and majorities of them found guided tours to be clinically relevant (87%). However, 69% of students felt that museum visits should be optional rather than compulsory within the medical training curriculum.

Gross range of motion in the cervical spine: the effects of osteopathic muscle energy technique in asymptomatic subjects.

Muscle energy technique is an established osteopathic manipulative intervention often used to treat somatic dysfunctions of the spine. There are little objective data to demonstrate its efficacy, however. To determine the efficacy of this osteopathic manipulative technique, the authors compared active cervical range of motion among asymptomatic young and middle-aged adults (n=18) before and after this treatment protocol, comparing those results against matched control subjects (n=14) who received sham manipulative treatment. Range of motion was measured in three planes (flexion/extension, lateral bending, rotation) on all subjects (N=32) using a motion-analysis system. Multiplanar gross cervical motion restrictions were diagnosed in this asymptomatic population. In the treatment group, cervical long restrictor muscles were treated with the muscle energy technique in the sagittal, frontal, and horizontal planes. The control group had relative restrictions addressed by means of a sham manipulative treatment protocol in which the barriers to motion were not challenged therapeutically. The muscle energy technique produced a significant increase in overall regional cervical range of motion in the treatment group (approximately 4 degrees) when compared with control subjects (P<.001). Significant differences were also observed in the magnitude of change in the three planes of movement (rotation, P<.002; lateral bending, P<.01), with flexion/extension being the least affected (P=.2). These data demonstrate that the application of the muscle energy technique can produce acute increases in the active cervical range of motion in asymptomatic subjects.

A retrospective study of cranial strain patterns in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease.

While providing osteopathic manipulative treatment to patients with Parkinson's disease at the clinic of the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine of New York Institute of Technology, physicians noted that these patients may exhibit particular cranial findings as a result of the disease. The purpose of this study was to compare the recorded observations of cranial strain patterns of patients with Parkinson's disease for the detection of common cranial findings. Records of cranial strain patterns from physician-recorded observations of 30 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease and 20 age-matched normal controls were compiled. This information was used to determine whether different physicians observed particular strain patterns in greater frequency between Parkinson's patients and controls. Patients with Parkinson's disease had a significantly higher frequency of bilateral occipitoatlantal compression (87% vs. 50%; P < .02) and bilateral occipitomastoid compression (40% vs. 10%; P < .05) compared with normal controls. Over subsequent visits and treatments, the frequency of both strain patterns were reduced significantly (occipitoatlantal compression, P < .01; occipitomastoid compression, P < .05) to levels found in the control group.