Development and Implementation of a Novel Integrated Anatomical Sciences Mobile App for Medical Students
Authors: Harmon Derek , Kalmar Eileen , Burgoon Jennifer 
Published: November 2023

INTRODUCTION

Contact hours for anatomy instruction to medical students continues to decrease. Simultaneously, medical schools are transitioning from individual discipline‐based courses to integrated curricula. To counteract this decrease in time spent with the students, medical educators are creating numerous electronic learning (e‐learning) and mobile learning (m‐learning) resources. The rapid expansion of mobile technology in higher education has provided students the opportunity to take the content provided from their schools with them, making it accessible at anytime, any place. The powerful hardware and software within mobile devices allows developers to create intuitive, interactive and effective mobile applications (apps). Neither medical educators nor medical students have yet to take advantage of the mobile technology available to create and test the viability of integrated anatomy resources to supplement evolving integrated medical school curricula. Therefore, to better understand factors that lead to the adoption and usage of educational mobile apps by medical students, the aim of this study was to identify and measure the constructs that influenced the student's intention to use an integrated mobile app.

METHODS

The 4natomy mobile app was developed to run on the Apple iPad based on responses gathered from a series of group interviews conducted with second year medical students at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, between July and October 2014. The mobile app focused on spinal cord anatomy and was available for all first year medical students to download and use during the associated curricular block. Following the curricular block's final exam, a 26‐question survey based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) was distributed to measure students’ acceptance of the new technology. The determinate relationship between students’ perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, personal innovativeness and behavioral intention towards using the 4natomy mobile app were analyzed through structural equation modeling.

RESULTS

Of the 195 first year medical students, 106 students downloaded and used the app at least one time. Of these 106, 80 students (75.5%) completed the survey. Survey responses indicated that student perception of the ease of app use was a significant determinant on perceived enjoyment of the app (p< .001), perceived usefulness of the app (p< .001) and student intention to use the mobile app in the future (p= .039). Student self‐perception of being personally innovative had a significant effect on perceived usefulness of the app (p= .005) and intention to adopt the mobile app in the future (p= .03). Student perceived usefulness of the mobile app was the strongest determinant of intention to adopt the mobile app in the future (p< .001).

CONCLUSIONS

Study results show a strong positive relationship between students’ feelings of the app's ease of use and its usefulness to their learning and their behavioral intention to use this resource in the future. This study highlights constructs that influence use of mobile technology in anatomy education. The results provide insight into the importance of developing mobile resources that students perceive to be easy to use and useful in the context of the evolving medical school curriculum.

Support or Funding Information

The Ohio State University Department of Anatomy