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Beresheim A, Zepeda D, Pharel M, Soy T, Wilson AB, Ferrigno C. Anatomy's missing faces: An assessment of representation gaps in atlas and textbook imagery. ANATOMICAL SCIENCES EDUCATION 2024; 17:1055-1070. [PMID: 38695348 DOI: 10.1002/ase.2432] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2023] [Revised: 04/09/2024] [Accepted: 04/13/2024] [Indexed: 07/07/2024]
Abstract
Previous research suggests that underrepresentation in medical curricula perpetuates inequities in healthcare. This study aimed to quantify the prevalence of human phenotypic diversity (e.g., skin tone, sex, body size, and age) across 11 commonly used anatomy atlases and textbooks in pre-clerkship medical education, published from 2015 to 2020. A systematic visual content analysis was conducted on 5001 images in which at least one phenotypic attribute was quantifiable. Anatomy images most prevalently portrayed light skin tones, males, persons with intermediate body sizes, and young to middle-aged adults. Of the 3883 images in which there was a codable skin tone, 81.2% (n = 3154) depicted light, 14.3% (n = 554) depicted intermediate, and 4.5% (n = 175) depicted dark skin tones. Of the 2384 images that could be categorized into a sex binary, 38.4% (n = 915) depicted females and 61.6% (n = 1469) depicted males. A male bias persisted across all whole-body and regional-body images, including those showing sex organs or those showing characteristics commonly associated with a specific sex (e.g. for males, facial hair and/or muscle hypertrophy). Within sex-specific contexts, darker skin was underrepresented, but male depictions displayed greater overall skin tone variation. Although most images could not be assigned to a body size or age category, when codable, these images overwhelmingly depicted adults (85.0%; 482 of 567) with smaller (34.7%; 93 of 268) or intermediate (64.6%; 173 of 268) body sizes. Ultimately, these outcomes provide reference metrics for monitoring ongoing and future efforts to address representation inequalities portrayed in anatomical imagery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy Beresheim
- Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Rush University, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - David Zepeda
- Rush Medical College, Rush University, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Marissa Pharel
- Rush Medical College, Rush University, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Tyler Soy
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Adam B Wilson
- Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Rush University, Chicago, Illinois, USA
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Agarwal SC. The bioethics of skeletal anatomy collections from India. Nat Commun 2024; 15:1692. [PMID: 38402200 PMCID: PMC10894195 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45738-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2023] [Accepted: 02/02/2024] [Indexed: 02/26/2024] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Sabrina C Agarwal
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94704, USA.
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Bhattacharjee S, Ghosh SK. The Sun Also Rises: Tracing the evolution of humanistic values in anatomy pedagogy and research, including cadaveric acquisition practices. J Anat 2023; 243:1031-1051. [PMID: 37525506 PMCID: PMC10641044 DOI: 10.1111/joa.13938] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2023] [Revised: 06/04/2023] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 08/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Anatomy has always been at the intersection of the socio-cultural and political landscape, where new ideas constantly replace older wisdom. From ancient Egyptians through the Greeks, and then the Romans, finally culminating into the European Renaissance-all the significant eras of human civilisation have left their insignia and distinct marks on the evolution of anatomical practices. Despite its utility as a tool for anatomy pedagogy and research that has proven its worth over millennia, cadaveric dissection has particularly been subject to political and social vicissitudes. A major debate about anatomical dissection lay with the ethical considerations, or its lack thereof, while acquiring corpses for demonstration in the dissection halls. From antiquity, anatomical dissection-often synonymous with medical studies-had typically been carried out on the dead bodies of executed criminals with certain laws, such as the Murder Act of 1752, facilitating such uses. Gradually, the uses of unclaimed bodies, resourced primarily from the impoverished sections of society, were also introduced. However, these body acquisition protocols often missed the crucial element of humanism and ethical considerations, while knowledge augmentation was taken as sufficient reasoning. Unfortunately, a gross disregard towards humanistic values promulgated heinous and illegal practices in acquiring corpses, including grave robbery and even murders like in the case of Burke and Hare murders of 1828. Follow-up legislation, such as the Anatomy Act of 1832, and comparable laws in other European nations were passed to curb the vile. What distils from such a historical discourse on humane values in anatomy dissection, or medical science in general, is that the growth and integration of humanism in anatomy have never been linear, but there were intermittent and, yet, significant disruptions in its timeline. For example, there were serious human rights violations in anatomical practices during the Third Reich in Germany that perpetrated the holocaust. The medical community has kept evolving and introducing new moral values and principles while using such egregious events as lessons, ultimately resulting in the Declaration of Helsinki in 1964. This article revisits the heterogeneous journey of integrating humanistic values in anatomy practice. Such humanistic traits that, like medical science, have also developed over centuries through the inputs of physicians, researchers, and philosophers-from Greece to modernity with an important stopgap at the Renaissance-are a fascinating lore that deserves to be re-envisioned through the lens of contemporary values and ethos. In parallel to human medicine, humanistic values continue to influence veterinary medicine, a welcome development, as our society condemns animal cruelty in any form. There are lessons to be learned from this historical journey of how humanism shaped many of the concepts that anatomists use now. Finally, and most importantly, it might prevent the medical community from repeating the same mistakes by cautioning against the traps that are there, and in a convoluted world where morality as such is eroding from our social fabric, will always be there. Such historical account acts as a righteous, ethical, and contextual compass to guide the existing and upcoming anatomists in discerning between light and dark, right and wrong, and roads-to be or not to be-taken.
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Brown MEL, Collini A. On acknowledging silence within medical education. MEDICAL EDUCATION 2023; 57:1191-1197. [PMID: 37323058 DOI: 10.1111/medu.15151] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Revised: 05/04/2023] [Accepted: 05/26/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Silence is a part of all interactions, yet its potential significance within medical education remains underexplored. Existing literature primarily focuses on its use as a skill, leaving a gap in understanding its broader implications. Emerging evidence from higher education suggests that conceptualising silence as a way of being and becoming could enrich personal and professional growth. Unfolding dialogue on equality, diversity and inclusion suggests that silence on inequity can be oppressive. However, medical education has yet to consider the possible implications of conceptualising silence in this way. METHODS We explore silence through the philosophical lens of acknowledgement. Acknowledgement-communicative behaviour that grants attention to others-is a philosophy with roots in phenomenology. It is concerned with being and becoming, and silence can be part of the communicative behaviour that constitutes acknowledgement. Our aim in exploring the ontological nature of silence (silence associated with being) using acknowledgement is to offer a springboard for practitioners, educators, and researchers to consider how silence is connected with our existence as people. RESULTS Positive acknowledgement involves a commitment to turning towards the other and valuing this connection. Silence can be a way of demonstrating this-for example, giving patients the space they need to express their thoughts and emotions. Negative acknowledgement is the opposite and involves dismissing, ignoring or invalidating another's experiences. In the context of silence, negative acknowledgement may involve ignoring a person or group's ideas, or bystander silence when witness to discrimination. CONCLUSIONS Within this work, we consider the ramifications of conceptualising silence as ontological, rather than purely a skill to be taught. This is a novel way of conceptualising silence, and there is a pressing need to explore this further to expand our understanding of the impact of silence for diverse groups of learners, educators, practitioners and patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Megan E L Brown
- Medical Education Innovation and Research Centre (MEdIC), Imperial College London, London, UK
- School of Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK
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Czech H, Hildebrandt S, Reis SP, Chelouche T, Fox M, González-López E, Lepicard E, Ley A, Offer M, Ohry A, Rotzoll M, Sachse C, Siegel SJ, Šimůnek M, Teicher A, Uzarczyk K, von Villiez A, Wald HS, Wynia MK, Roelcke V. The Lancet Commission on medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust: historical evidence, implications for today, teaching for tomorrow. Lancet 2023; 402:1867-1940. [PMID: 37951225 DOI: 10.1016/s0140-6736(23)01845-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2023] [Revised: 08/07/2023] [Accepted: 08/29/2023] [Indexed: 11/13/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Herwig Czech
- Ethics, Collections, and History of Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Sabine Hildebrandt
- Division of General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Shmuel P Reis
- Center for Medical Education, Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel; Department of Digital Medical Technologies, Holon Institute of Technology, Holon, Israel
| | - Tessa Chelouche
- Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion Institute, Haifa, Israel
| | - Matthew Fox
- Jakobovits Center for Jewish Medical Ethics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
| | - Esteban González-López
- Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Etienne Lepicard
- Center for Medical Education, Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Astrid Ley
- Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen, Oranienburg, Germany
| | - Miriam Offer
- Center of the Study of Jewish Medicine during the Holocaust, Western Galilee College, Acre, Israel
| | - Avi Ohry
- Rehabilitation Medicine, School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Maike Rotzoll
- Institute for the History of Pharmacy and Medicine, Marburg University, Marburg, Germany
| | - Carola Sachse
- Institute of Contemporary History, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Sari J Siegel
- Center for Medicine, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Michal Šimůnek
- Institute of Contemporary History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Amir Teicher
- Department of History, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Kamila Uzarczyk
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Wrocław Medical University, Wrocław, Poland
| | - Anna von Villiez
- Memorial Israelitische Töchterschule, Hamburger Volkshochschule, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Hedy S Wald
- Department of Family Medicine, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | - Matthew K Wynia
- Center for Bioethics and Humanities, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA
| | - Volker Roelcke
- Institute for the History, Theory and Ethics of Medicine, Giessen University, Gießen, Germany
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Riesen MS, Kiessling C, Tauschel D, Wald HS. "Where my responsibility lies": Reflecting on medicine during the Holocaust to support personal and professional identity formation in health professions education. GMS JOURNAL FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION 2023; 40:Doc24. [PMID: 37361249 PMCID: PMC10285371 DOI: 10.3205/zma001606] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2022] [Revised: 11/27/2022] [Accepted: 01/30/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2023]
Abstract
Objectives Physicians and the medical/scientific establishment during Nazism and the Holocaust committed egregious ethical violations including complicity with genocide. Critical reflection on this history serves as a powerful platform for scaffolding morally resilient professional identity formation (PIF) with striking relevance for contemporary health professions education and practice. Study aim was to explore the impact of an Auschwitz Memorial study trip within the context of a medicine during Nazism and the Holocaust curriculum on students' personal and PIF. Methods The authors analyzed 44 medical and psychology students' reflective writings from a 2019 Auschwitz Memorial study trip using immersion-crystallization qualitative thematic analysis. Results Six distinct themes and 22 subthemes were identified and mapped to a reflective learning process model: 1. "What am I bringing?" 2. "What am I experiencing through the curriculum?" 3. "What am I initially becoming aware of as a first response?" 4./5. "How and what am I processing?" 6. "What am I taking with me?" Particularly compelling subthemes of power of the place, emotional experience, reflection on myself as a moral person, and contemporary relevance referred to impactful course elements. Conclusions This curriculum catalyzed a critically reflective learning/meaning-making process supporting personal and PIF including critical consciousness, ethical awareness, and professional values. Formative curriculum elements include narrative, supporting emotional aspects of learning, and guided reflection on moral implications. The authors propose Medicine during Nazism and the Holocaust curriculum as a fundamental health professions education component cultivating attitudes, values, and behaviors for empathic, moral leadership within inevitable healthcare challenges.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Claudia Kiessling
- Witten/Herdecke University, Faculty of Health, Chair for the Education of Personal and Interpersonal Competences in Health Care, Witten, Germany
| | - Diethard Tauschel
- Witten/Herdecke University, Faculty of Health, Integrated Curriculum for Anthroposophic Medicine (ICURAM) within the Professorship for Education, Training and Continuing Education in Anthroposophic Medicine, Witten, Germany
| | - Hedy S. Wald
- Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Department of Family Medicine, Lancet Commission on Medicine and the Holocaust, Providence/RI, U.S.A
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Jones DG. Anatomists' uses of human skeletons: Ethical issues associated with the India bone trade and anonymized archival collections. ANATOMICAL SCIENCES EDUCATION 2023. [PMID: 37039309 DOI: 10.1002/ase.2280] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2023] [Revised: 03/13/2023] [Accepted: 04/03/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
Concerns have recently been expressed about the continuing availability of human bones from India, obtained originally for educational purposes but lacking the requisite informed consent that would be expected today. More generally, a broader claim is being made, namely, that the practice of using any unconsented bones in educational settings is unethical and should cease. These calls, in turn, raise broader issues regarding the availability of anonymous archival collections in anatomy museums. Although this debate centers on undergraduate anatomy teaching, much anthropological research utilizes human remains of past populations for which there can have been no consent. A suggested alternative for undergraduate teaching is the use of 3D images of human bones, rather than the bones themselves. In addressing these issues, the background to the India bone trade is assessed, and the year 1985 is pinpointed as having significant ethical weight. The cultural and ethical interests inherent in studying archival anonymous skeletal material are weighed against indiscriminate reburial. Although any use of unconsented material represents ethical compromise, account should be taken of changing ethical expectations with time. It is concluded that: there is no justification for repatriation or disposal of all bones for which specific informed consent has not been obtained; continued use of anonymous archival human bones in a professional setting is acceptable, even in the absence of informed consent, with the proviso that there are no culturally relevant groups seeking repatriation; the continued existence of bones in long-standing private collections cannot be justified since it amounts to long-term storage with no identified goals; the notion that 3D images are an ethically superior alternative to actual human bones is unsustainable, since there is an intimate connection between the bones and the 3D images.
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Cornwall J, Hildebrandt S, Champney T. Skeletons in the closet: time to give human bones acquired by health practitioners for educational purposes the respect they deserve. Med J Aust 2022; 217:379. [DOI: 10.5694/mja2.51704] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2022] [Accepted: 07/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jon Cornwall
- Centre for Early Learning in Medicine University of Otago Dunedin New Zealand
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Organ JM, Comer AR. Evolution of a discipline-The changing face of anatomy. Anat Rec (Hoboken) 2022; 305:766-771. [PMID: 35194948 PMCID: PMC9307022 DOI: 10.1002/ar.24901] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2022] [Accepted: 02/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
Abstract
This special issue is unlike any other special issue published in this journal's history. You will not find the types of original research in anatomy and evolutionary biology that you are accustomed to seeing adorning the pages of The Anatomical Record. Instead, the articles included cover the past and future of the discipline of anatomy broadly and of the American Association for Anatomy (AAA) more narrowly, and through two specific rhetorical frames: ethics; and diversity, equity, and inclusion. The articles in this issue are divided into two sections. The first section traces the history of anatomy and addresses many of the ethical dilemmas we face as a result of that history. The second section sets the stage for how the discipline and the AAA move forward to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive future for students, teachers, colleagues, and everyone else we touch through our work as anatomists. While this is only the beginning of our reconciliation with our past, the future certainly looks bright.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason M Organ
- Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology & Physiology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
| | - Amber R Comer
- Department of Health Sciences, Indiana University School of Health and Human Sciences, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.,Center for Bioethics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
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Organ JM, Mussell JC. A case for using eponyms in anatomy to teach bioethics. ANATOMICAL SCIENCES EDUCATION 2021; 14:859-861. [PMID: 34270862 DOI: 10.1002/ase.2123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2021] [Revised: 07/10/2021] [Accepted: 07/14/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Jason M Organ
- Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
| | - Jason C Mussell
- Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
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