Design of a multi‐use new anatomy facility: prioritizing medical student education in a patient‐based learning curriculum
Authors: Johnson Laura E. , Aldridge Kristina A. , Holliday Casey M. , Middleton Kevin M. , Sherwood Richard J. , Ward Carol V. 
Published: June 2021

The University of Missouri School of Medicine (MUSOM) provides anatomical sciences education for 1st‐ and 4th‐year medical students within the context of a patient‐based learning (PBL) curriculum. In addition, as a land‐grant, state‐run institution, MUSOM also serves a broad audience from senior clinicians, health care professions students, and local area high school students. In the summer of 2017, MUSOM held the grand opening of a new medical education building, providing an opportunity to design a space flexible for many different anatomy education activities. The 6400 sq ft of anatomical sciences facilities comprises two instructional laboratories and centralized storage spaces.

At MUSOM, 1st‐year medical students work in PBL groups of eight through patient‐based cases, becoming competent in their basic sciences. This curriculum is reflected in the larger Anatomy instructional lab (4012 sq ft), designed to have an even number of 36 tables. We assign each PBL group to two adjacent tables with both a male and female donor. Thus, we are able to design in‐lab activities for PBL groups such as performing complementary dissections as well as daily clinical reasoning activities such as our Anatomy Rounds. Practicing clinicians regularly present to students during lab on clinical correlations, using ten 90″ monitors distributed throughout the space for slides, radiographic images, and videos. This open layout allows clinicians to readily interact with students about the room during their presentation. This technology is also used while students dissect to project stand‐alone text and images of clinical correlations relevant to the day's lab. To take advantage of excellent student dissections, prosections, and anatomical variants from around the room, we prioritized a mobile high‐definition camera, projecting real‐time images to the room's monitors.

Our 4th‐year medical students may elect to perform self‐driven, regional dissections for presentation based upon their future career interests. The month‐long, self‐driven nature of the course makes it flexible for students on their demanding residency interview schedules. We designed the smaller instructional lab (723 sq ft) to include six tables, and with the regional breakdown of donors, allows for up to 60 students per month to take the course. Two 60″ monitors allow students to independently look up information relevant for their dissection and supplement their presentations with visuals.

To accommodate physical therapy student education, clinical training of residents and faculty, vendor demonstrations, and outreach events to local area students, the configuration of each room is flexible. Mobile tables, stools, and no impeding infrastructure such as monitors or walls, allow for the rooms to be rearranged readily. Making design decisions with the flexibility of the facility in mind, the new anatomy space at the MUSOM will serve a diverse audience, from senior clinicians to high school students, well into the future.

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.