Flipping Radiologic Anatomy – An Assessment of Effectiveness in a Condensed Medical Gross Anatomy and Embryology Course
Authors: Harrell Kelly M 
Published: June 2021

Recent trends in medical education suggest that condensing pre‐clinical curricula allows medical students more time to develop clinical skills. This trend challenges faculty to reshape content delivery. To meet this challenge, faculty have traded passive lecture‐based instruction for active‐learning strategies—such as flipped classroom—that promote deeper thinking through application. Radiologic anatomy content fits well into this model, as it provides learners with clinically relevant material framed within the construct of a medical gross anatomy and embryology (GAE) course. At the Brody School of Medicine (BSOM), radiologic anatomy was traditionally taught in a clinician‐led lecture series that complimented GAE content. In 2016, BSOM transitioned to a condensed pre‐clinical curriculum, and it became evident that the radiology lecture‐series was no longer an effective mode of delivery. In 2017, radiology lectures were shifted to clinician‐facilitated flipped classroom sessions, with the objective to improve medical student baseline knowledge of radiologic anatomy and promote retention for USMLE exams and clerkships. This study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of this shift through two specific aims: 1. Assessment of student performance on radiology questions in a first‐year GAE course from 2016–2018; 2. Assessment of student perception of radiology flipped classroom sessions. Significant improvements in learner performance following the implementation of the radiology flipped classroom sessions and that learner perception will be highly favorable (>80% agree/strongly agree) were predicted. To investigate aim 1, de‐identified student performance (%) on radiology questions from GAE computer and laboratory examinations were compared between cohorts (t‐test; p<0.05) across four exam sections (1‐back/upper limb; 2‐head/neck; 3‐thorax/abdomen; 4‐pelvis/lower limb). Analyses revealed significant improvements in student performance on computer and laboratory radiology questions in 2017 (n=91) and 2018 (n=87) when compared to 2016 (n=84) for exam 1. While 2017 and 2018 cohorts significantly outperformed 2016 on computer exam 3, no difference was noted on lab exam 3 performance across groups. Surprisingly, the 2016 cohort significantly outperformed 2017 and 2018 on lab exam 2. These data suggest that flipped classroom sessions were most effective early, likely by establishing clear learning objectives and expectations, and that early active exposure to content improved performance on both computer and lab exams. To assess aim 2, a voluntary end‐of‐course survey was sent to cohort 2017 (98.8% response) to assess student perception of sessions. Survey data revealed 91.9% of respondents agreed/strongly agreed that sessions were engaging and offered clear objectives. Additionally, 89.7% and 93.1% agreed/strongly agreed that sessions enhanced understanding of gross and clinical anatomy content, respectively. Collectively, results support the use of flipped classroom as an instructional method that enhances early student engagement, perception and knowledge of radiologic anatomy content. Future directions include evaluation of medical student preparedness for USMLE Step‐1 and clerkships as related to radiologic anatomy.

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.