Getting back together after a break‐up: Relationship advice for anatomists and surgeons

Abstract

The "surgeon-anatomist" was originally a single individual who self-pursued knowledge and understanding of anatomy as the foundation for successful surgical outcomes. However, recent advances in medical education have ironically led to the separation of anatomy and surgery. This physical and emotional "divorce" of anatomists and surgeons into separate individuals has created several critical educational issues for medical and surgical educators including a general lack of anatomical knowledge in medical students and misalignment of graduate medical education procedural specialty training with the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education Core Competencies and now the Next Accreditation System. There are numerous opportunities for anatomists and surgeons to work together to improve educational instruction of established difficult anatomical regions, procedural training, or even develop new techniques and procedures. Similarly, anatomists with specialized training in medical education would be invaluable partners to ensure that procedural assessments align with instructional technologies for truly longitudinal curricula that starts at the medical student level, but stops at the patient outcomes of attending surgeons. This mutually beneficial relationship would be similar to multidisciplinary care teams and current surgeon and PhD/EdD partnerships. The restoration of the relationship between anatomists and surgeons would be invaluable to surgical education and remains an exciting research opportunity.

Interactive anatomical and surgical live stream lectures improve students' academic performance in applied clinical anatomy

“…It is apparent that no single format is best, and multimodal teaching strategies may enhance interest and comprehension (Dettmer et al, ). The context of this teaching is also important, and contextual learning may deepen students' experience and anatomical knowledge (Clough and Lehr, ; Phitayakorn and Lachman, ). Clinical anatomy departments typically emphasize anatomical knowledge, especially the clinical application of anatomy in surgical disciplines.…”

Urethral Injury in Rectal Cancer Surgery: A Comprehensive Study Using Cadaveric Dissection, Imaging Analyses, and Clinical Series

“…Through the exchange of insights and concerns among surgeons, radiologists, and human anatomists, this multidisciplinary research has provided anatomic references for surgery that can have a profound impact on surgical strategies and help reduce the risk of complications [22].…”

Evidence-based Guidelines on the Use of Virtual Surgical Education Pertaining to the Domains of Cognition and Curriculum, Psychomotor Skills Training, and Faculty Development and Mentorship

“…The curricula will need to be revised to accommodate the differences in virtual and in-person learning because simply using in-person curricula on a virtual platform may have unintended detrimental effects on the learners. Multimodal teaching strategies for virtual education may enhance the learners’ interest, comprehension, experiences, and knowledge 55–57 …”

“…Multimodal teaching strategies for virtual education may enhance the learners' interest, comprehension, experiences, and knowledge. [55][56][57] Virtual learning requires innovation. As we introduce and shift to the virtual format, we need to discern its long-term value by continuously evaluating the changes that transpire and improving such innovations even beyond the pandemic.…”