Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Anatomical Knowledge Retention In Changing Curricula, Alexa Lean, Juliet Lee, Ellen Goldman, Gisela Butera, Kirsten Brown, Rosalyn Jurjus

GW Research Days 2016 - 2020

Traditionally anatomy is one of the first subjects taught in medical school. Practicing physicians have commented on medical students’ poor anatomical knowledge in surgically oriented clerkships. Literature also shows that correlating clinical and anatomical sciences throughout early medical education may improve anatomical knowledge retention. With major medical school curricular changes happening across the nation, more quantitative data confirming this correlation is needed.

The medical curriculum at the George Washington University School of Medicine recently underwent reorganization, transforming an earlier discipline-based curriculum to that of an integrated system-based one. In order to determine whether reorganization has an effect on anatomical knowledge …