Missteps and masquerade in American medical academe: Clinical anatomists call for action
✍ Scribed by Donald R. Cahill; Robert J. Leonard
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 40 KB
- Volume
- 12
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0897-3806
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Missteps and Masquerade in American Medical Academe: Clinical Anatomists Call for Action
The American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA) is a staunch proponent of scholarship (teaching and research) in clinical anatomy. Nonetheless, in certain ways, the vitality and pride in our discipline have suffered in recent time. This essay unpacks some of the history behind this decline and offers several proposals for reclaiming our scholarly purpose. It begins with an actual incident that illustrates a pivotal point in American medical anatomic education.
This occasion took place in the 1960s and centered around an experienced gross anatomist, Dr. Able, and a talented research scientist, Dr. Bravo, who was thrust into a gross anatomy course at a major medical school to help out. Four months into the course, Dr. Bravo began his single lecture by saying, '' I've worked very hard on today's lecture on the thigh and I've discovered that the material should be easy for you students to understand. The only part of the entire region that I feel needs clarification is the half-dollar-sized fossa ovalis near the groin. Therefore, I will lecture only on that topic and leave the rest of the subject matter (osteology, myology, innervation, fascial compartments, vascular supply, and correlations to posture and locomotion) for you to learn on your own. Should be no problem.'' Dr. Bravo finished his presentation in 10 minutes and summarily dismissed the class to the dissection laboratories. The flabbergasted Dr. Able bolted to his feet and cried out, ''Class, stay in your seats. I will finish the lecture in a few minutes.''
The anatomically clueless Dr. Bravo was recruited on a hunch that he could secure funding for his research. He was one of the first of the anatomically untrained who were assigned to teach gross anatomy; many would follow. (The fashionable, yet oddly incongruous term, ''nonexpert facilitator,'' now titles many of today's Dr. Bravos.) His hiring was an ominous signal that faculty would henceforth be recruited because of their potential for generating income, not because of a teaching need in a particular area. Thus, education of medical students by dedicated, welltrained gross anatomists, who knew and admired their discipline, had begun to wither. Within a decade, graduate programs in anatomy would all but eliminate training in gross anatomy as a requirement for the PhD degree, further paving the way for the on-the-job training of gross anatomists and more Dr. Bravos. Concomitantly, many anatomy departments renamed themselves; the word ''anatomy'' became an anathema because it hear-Clinical Anatomy 12: 220-222 (1999)