The development of clinical reasoning skills: a major objective of the anatomy course

Traditional medical school curricula have made a clear demarcation between the basic biomedical sciences and the clinical years. It is our view that a comprehensive medical education necessarily involves an increased correlation between basic science knowledge and its clinical applications. A basic anatomy course should have two main objectives: for the student to successfully gain a solid knowledge base of human anatomy and to develop and hone clinical reasoning skills. In a basic anatomy course, clinical case discussions based on underlying anatomic anomalies or abnormalities are the major means to teach students clinical reasoning skills. By identifying, classifying, and analyzing the clinical data given, a student learns to methodically approach a clinical case and formulate plausible diagnoses. Practicing and perfecting clinical problem-solving skills should be a major objective of the anatomy curriculum. Such clinical reasoning skills are indeed crucial for the successful and expert practice of medicine.