How do medical students utilize Instagram to facilitate their anatomy learning during the preclinical years?
Authors: Brown Kirsten 
Published: April 2020

In the preclinical medical curriculum, anatomical sciences are classically taught with face‐to‐face, interactive lectures, and laboratory sessions. Although students have formal instructional time for anatomy, there is growing concern that the reduced teaching time has compromised student learning and engagement. Social media‐based platforms represent one such solution, and have been used to engage students outside the classroom. Prior work has identified favorable student responses for incorporating these platforms in medical education. However, the bulk of research has examined Twitter or Facebook, and not specific photo‐sharing applications (e.g, Instagram). Therefore this work sought to answer the question, how do medical students utilize Instagram to facilitate their anatomy learning during the preclinical years?

A customized Instagram account (@BuffNBlueAnat) for the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences (GWSMHS) was created during the Fall 2017 semester for second year medical students (n=185) studying anatomy, neuroanatomy, and radiographic anatomy. Students were recruited to via email and through the application. Participation was voluntary. Throughout the semester, various types of posts (swipeable quizzes, short videos, etc.) were shared on the account. Feedback to student comments on the posts was provided in realtime. Social media analytics, tracking content views and shares, were collected every 2–3 weeks using the Instagram Insights tool. Data was also collected for the types of posts (anatomy, motivation, etc.) shared. A survey questionnaire built in Google forms was used to determine student perceptions and usage preferences. All data were coded and analyzed using non‐parametric t‐tests in SPSS (v. 26.0).

Over the semester, 137 posts were shared, with the majority of them being anatomy‐related (n=77; 56.2%). Followers engaged with these posts the most (722 total likes); however, the posts with the highest mean engagement rates were those that highlighted GWSMHS (28.71 mean likes) and provided motivational content (18.81 mean likes). Survey respondents (n=58; 34.3%) overwhelmingly thought Instagram was a useful supplement to traditional anatomical instruction. Students that viewed and interacted with the account more frequently rated the account as significantly more beneficial than those who viewed (p=0.004) or interacted less frequently (p=0.003). Survey responses highlighted the account’s strengths for reviewing content and providing relevance to pop culture.

These data suggests that the Instagram account was used to review anatomy; however given the response rate, future implementation of Instagram in curricula should perhaps be formalized. Students who viewed and interacted with the account regularly not only used it to review anatomical concepts, but also to maintain a sense of community at GWSMHS and stay motivated during learning based on their activity. Ultimately, Instagram presents a new opportunity for anatomy educators to engage with students outside of designated class hours. The platform enables interactions and connections between users that can foster learning by tapping into informal educational opportunities.