Effectiveness of Anatomic Body Painting in an Undergraduate Medical Curriculum
Authors: Grant Sara , Jackman Trenton , Metcalf Brandon , Barremkala Mallikarjuna 
Published: June 2021

INTRODUCTION

Anatomic body painting is described as painting the surface of the body in precise anatomically correct detail. The goal of this technique is to facilitate understanding of the spatial relations of the underlying anatomy and develop the ability to recognize clinical signs on a living subject. While the use of body painting has been explored in many international medical schools and some allied health programs in the United States, it has not been actively explored in U.S. undergraduate medical education, possibly due to the time constraints that the curriculum imposes. However, literature review shows that both students and anatomists are of the opinion that the use of anatomic body painting as an adjunct review tool facilitates active learning of the material in a more relatable and creative manner. The goal of this project is to determine whether the implementation of an anatomic body painting review session is beneficial for undergraduate medical students. Specifically, we plan to evaluate student opinions on the effectiveness and efficiency of the session in relation to other review techniques.

METHODS

Participants will be invited to attend a 120‐minute anatomic body painting session developed in head and neck region with clinical correlates. Students will be divided into small groups. Each group will be provided hypo‐allergenic water‐based paint and a guide for the session that will direct them through a series of tasks that reflect the learning modalities of the head and neck. Key personnel will be present throughout the session to assist participants as needed and answer questions related to the content. Each task will involve the use of surface landmarks and palpation techniques to paint structures or regions of the head and neck while incorporating various clinical correlates for the students to discuss. A survey and assessment will be utilized at both the beginning and the end of the session to evaluate the students' confidence and understanding of the content. There will also be questions to assess their opinions about the session and its utilization in undergraduate medical curriculum.

RESULTS

We anticipate that attending the anatomic body painting session will be beneficial to the students' confidence and understanding of the material and will be reflected in improved assessment scores after the session is complete. Furthermore, we expect that while participants will report spending more time reviewing the material at the session than they would have otherwise, they will find it beneficial to their overall understanding of both anatomical and clinical concepts for the head and neck.

CONCLUSION

While anatomic body painting sessions may be more time consuming that other review modalities, it provides a unique and active learning experience for medical students that improves their overall confidence and understanding of the anatomy on a living subject. Therefore, the utilization of these sessions as an adjunct review tool in U.S. medical schools should be more closely considered.

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