Anatomy across the pond; how anatomy is taught and in how many hours in the United Kingdom.

Abstract

It has been suggested that a deficit in junior clinicians anatomical knowledge is causing harm to patients, evidenced by a rise in surgical negligence legal claims resulting from a lack of knowledge of underlying anatomy. This study set out to examine the state of anatomy in the UK and Ireland in 2019 and how it has changed over the past two decades. The study used questions previously published by Heylings (2002), with some additions to reflect recent innovations in anatomy teaching. The project was awarded ethical approval (ER/BSMS3867/8) and a survey comprising 53 questions was hosted on the University of Sussex Qualtrics platform. Heads of Anatomy in the UK and Ireland (n=40) were asked to complete the survey and a 100% response rate was obtained. The results showed that anatomy is a defined ‘group’ or department in 62% of institutions. For medical teaching, 38% of institutions follow a systems‐based curriculum and 35% a hybrid curriculum. The number of medical student being taught in a cohort ranged from 71–450. The time dedicated to gross anatomy teaching ranged from 34–145h. Only one institution teaches anatomy by dissection only, 12 using prosection only, and 17 use a combination of the two. Five institutions do not use human cadaveric material. In 2018, five new medical schools were created in the UK, each following an existing institution’s curriculum. At the time of the survey, were yet to enroll students and therefore, were not included in the study. In comparison to data gathered therein 1999 (Heylings, 2002) when 160h was the mean teaching time for traditional regional anatomy courses and 116h for system based courses, the results of the current study reveal a considerable reduction in anatomy teaching hours. Is this reduction responsible for the increase in surgical negligence claims?