Gross anatomy is the study of anatomy at the visible or macroscopic level. It is the counterpart to histology, which studies microscopic anatomy. However, the expense of maintaining cadaveric dissection facilities has limited the time and resources available for gross anatomy teaching in medical schools that are less funded, with some adopting alternative prosection-based or simulated teaching. This, coupled with decreasing time dedicated to gross anatomical courses within the growing greater medical school curriculum, has caused controversy surrounding the sufficiency of anatomical teaching with nearly half of newly qualified doctors believing they received insufficient anatomy teaching due to the course often being condensed into one semester.
Medical schools have implemented on-screen anatomical lessons and tutorials to teach students surgical procedures. The use of technological visual aids accompanied with gross dissection have been shown to be more effective than learning via one modality alone. Online and physically made flashcards and quizzes have been long used.
See also
- Anatomy
- Histology
- Human anatomy