Survey of gross anatomy courses in the United States and Canada

ross anatomy, the rite of passage for virtually all freshman medical students, seems to be under constant challenge from university administrations for its time allotment, method of teaching, total number of faculty required, and intensity of subject matter. Discussions generally seek the most heated emotional level rather than a spirited academic exchange of ideas and facts. Reasons for this are many, but one is probably the lack of a clearly defined and current data base upon which to have these academic discussions. 1 For this reason, a survey (see Appendix) was compiled which asked participating institutions to provide data on the time allotted for gross anatomy instruction, the number of lecture hours versus lab hours, the subcomponents of gross anatomy which were taught, the use of computers in instruction, and other modalities of instruction. Over 80 institutions in the United States and Canada were contacted by e-mail or fax, and 47 responded to the survey. This represents an approximate 50% return on the survey, which is well above the usual return rate for this type of activity. 2 The high level of return may have been due to guaranteed anonymity for each institution as well as a commitment to share with participants the combined data and analysis. The results of the survey are presented below.