Surgical prosection in a traditional anatomical curriculum-Tübingens' Sectio chirurgica

Despite the rapid rise of integrated curricula, the teaching of gross anatomy by traditional dissection remains a central element in most medical programs worldwide. However, modern didactic concepts demand the integration of clinical content in preclinical settings. The implementation of interdisciplinary tools often leads to a reduction in teaching of comprehensive anatomy. 'Tübingen's Sectio chirurgica' (TSC) introduces a concept of a teaching activity in which surgical prosection is performed in addition to the traditional dissection course. TSC is designed to integrate clinical and preclinical content in a traditional medical curriculum without affecting the systematic presentation of anatomical content. In the past 2 years, about 10,000 medical students have participated in the use of telemedical transmissions of 'live surgery' in a total of 25 sessions of TSC. Here we describe the organisational plan of TSC and the results of an evaluation which was performed to monitor the influence of TSC on student motivation for surgical disciplines as well as for the learning of anatomical factual content. We demonstrate that additional surgical prosection is a valuable tool in increasing the coherence between preclinical and clinical parts of medical education programs.