BACKGROUND AND PURPOSECadaver dissection historically has been an indispensable component of teaching and learning human anatomy for most health care professionals, including physical therapists.1'5 More recently, the effectiveness and efficiency of using cadavers has been studied and challenged.1,6 Cost and time have been cited as reasons for decreasing the use of human cadavers in courses.2,3,6 Also, the development and implementation of computer-assisted (CA) and web-based (WB) information technologies have challenged the traditional notion that cadaver dissection is essential for learning, understanding, and applying anatomy in clinical practice.3,7,8 Studies have demonstrated that use of CA and WB are reasonable and viable components of, or alternatives to, traditional cadaver dissection in human anatomy courses.6,9Recent studies provide evidence that learning human anatomy is not adversely affected by the use of CA and WB information technology.9'13 However, challenges still remain with regard to providing cost- and time-efficient anatomy content without compromising optimal standards for learning outcomes.1 There may be no single pedagogy for teaching anatomy that is maximally efficient for all health care disciplines. Physical therapists utilize visual assessment, surface anatomy, and palpation skills when examining patients, and may not need as much time in the cadaver lab as might be the case in other health care disciplines in order to learn clinically relevant anatomy.6 The purposes of this study were to: (1) describe changes to a traditional human gross anatomy course, specifically the use of WB video dissections and reduced time in actual cadaver dissection lab; (2) describe and assess student impressions of the curriculum; and (3) compare, assess, and discuss student outcomes related to changes to the human anatomy course in the entry-level Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).Method/Model Description and EvaluationFifty first-year physical therapist students were enrolled in the Human Gross Anatomy course in the Department of Physical Therapy. Forty-four students consented to participate in the study. Students were quasi-randomly assigned to lab groups of 5 students each at the beginning of the semester. During the semester, students viewed online video dissections14 on the Internet (www.youtube.com) for each region of the body studied. Four regions were studied during the semester: abdominal, spine, upper extremity, and lower extremity. Within each region, specific skeletal, muscular, articular, vascular, and neural components were identified and discussed. The course included a general description of the abdominal cavity's visceral components, emphasizing somatic representation of referred pain during surface anatomy labs. (Anatomy of the neck/head, thoracic cavity, and pelvic cavity is covered in the second semester of the curriculum, with 2 groups attending dissection sessions each week over an 8-week period.) The 4-credit hour course consisted of 1-hour lecture sessions, followed by 2-hour palpation/surface anatomy labs, 1-hour video dissection sessions, and cadaver dissection labs distributed over the 15 weeks of the semester. During the semester, each lab group participated in two, 3-hour cadaver dissection labs with the course instructor. Two 5-student groups were in the dissection lab for each session, with 1 cadaver per group. There was a total of 10 dissection sessions.All students participated in the online video dissection labs.14 There was a total of 10 video dissection sessions during the semester. Students viewed the assigned dissection video within their lab groups for approximately 20 minutes. The groups returned to class and viewed the dissection videos a second time with intermittent narration and more indepth discussion with the course instructor, each session totaling 50 minutes.The palpation/surface anatomy labs were 2-hour sessions immediately following each lecture session. …