How the Integration of Pathology in the Gross Anatomy Laboratory Affects Medical Students

The main objective of this project was to integrate pathologists into the gross anatomy laboratory setting to increase the exposure that early medical students receive to pathologists as clinicians.

Pathologists visited the gross anatomy laboratory 3 times throughout the 15-week course to assist medical students in determining the cause of death of the cadaver being dissected.

This intervention was implemented with 1st-semester medical students for 2 consecutive years (a total of 100 dissection teams consisting of 4 students in each team).

A quantitative content analysis was performed on the students' end of the course assignments to determine whether the students learned a greater percentage of pathologic information by having interactions with pathologists in the gross lab and to identify trends in the way medical students diagnosed their "first patient" (i.e., the cadaver). The students who had interactions with pathologists in the laboratory had significantly more pathology in their narrative than the students who did not receive pathologist interaction. They were also more likely to conclude that the cadaver they dissected actually died from a cause other than the one listed on the death certificate (18.3%; n = 15) compared to the students who had no pathologist interaction (1.8%; n = 2). A postintervention survey indicated that 65% of students felt that interaction with pathologists helped them understand the clinical application of gross anatomy, more than 40% become more interested in pathology, and 74% would have liked to have had more pathologist interaction.

This intervention demonstrated a way to increase pathologist interaction within the undergraduate medical curriculum and enhance the educational environment of the gross anatomy laboratory.