Adapting and implementing “Compassionatomy”: a compassion-cultivating approach to humanistic anatomy training for medical students

Background Humanistic practices offer many benefits in medical education. Compassionatomy, developed at University of California San Diego, incorporates humanistic compassion-cultivating practices into anatomy labs and was found to increase identification with body donors and encourage contemplative practice. This study sought to adapt, implement, and evaluate Compassionatomy for the pre-clinical anatomy program at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). Methods A multi-staged, mixed-methods design was used. First, Compassionatomy experts collaborated with CWRU to adapt the Compassionatomy manual to CWRU’s setting. Second, a group interview was facilitated with CWRU implementers and students to identify and address potential challenges before implementation. Third, first-year CWRU medical students participated in Compassionatomy during a 2-week dissection boot camp, followed by six weeks of virtual anatomy laboratories. Half the class was randomly assigned to experience compassion training (CT; 5 min per session, n = 92) and half experienced curriculum-as-usual (control group, n = 92). All were invited to complete pre- and post-surveys assessing identification with the donor and post-course satisfaction. Finally, interviews with students and implementers were conducted. Results Pre-implementation interviews identified five anticipated challenges and informed mitigation strategies that were integrated. Identification with the body donor in the CT group did not significantly differ from controls (group x time: p = 0.11). Post-surveys indicated that 71% rated CT in Boot Camp as worthwhile; 48% would recommend it to others and 27% were neutral. Post-qualitative findings identified program strengths and considerations for refinement. Conclusion This work reports a replicable and iterative adaptation process to support refinement and broader implementation of Compassionatomy to foster compassion and empathy in medical training and provides an example of cross-institutional collaboration for curricular innovation.