Abstract Introduction This scoping review explores how digital images are used for teaching gross anatomy in twenty-first century medical education and biomedical sciences. As digital and virtual resources are increasingly considered for teaching anatomy to medical and health science students, inadequate evidence exists on their effectiveness and educational impacts. Objective To synthesize globally available evidence on current state, recent trends, and advancements regarding digital images and human body resources for teaching human and clinical anatomy to medical and biomedical science students. Virtual images include artificially generated digital or digitized images and digitally obtained, curated, or customized human body images for education, irrespective of digital format or dimensional representation. Inclusion vs. exclusion criteria Inclusion criteria encompassed English-language articles on digital anatomical images for educational purposes (2001–2025), including peer-reviewed publications such as randomized control trials, cross-sectional studies, prospective and retrospective studies, case reports and series, action studies, and scholarly publications. Only articles addressing digital human anatomy images for scientific and medical students were considered. Digital images as main teaching resources or complementary aids were included, but not images obtained solely for research without teaching applications. Methods Search strategies were developed for all major databases following PRISMA Protocol and Flowchart. Initial search strategy was developed for PubMed with tested and refined key terms including anatomy teaching, anatomical images, educational resources, medical education, and biomedical education, using MeSH terms. Following successful PubMed implementation, the strategy was optimized for other databases: Google Scholar, ERIC, TRIP, and OATD. Publications from worldwide sources between 2001 and 2025 were considered. Results and conclusions Digital resources, particularly dynamic images, enhance student performance in anatomical studies. Primary educational value and learning impact measurements included post-exposure tests in standard assessments and acceptance reports. The review identified no research on digital resources for embryology teaching, indicating investment needs in digital resources for these fields. Studies were typically limited to individual institutions, highlighting the need for larger, multi-institutional research to understand broader digital resource impacts on medical education.
Alese et al. (Sun,) studied this question.