A “Doc‐in‐a‐Box” for the gross anatomy dissection lab

Within the next decade there will be a critical national shortage of PhD‐level faculty trained to teach gross anatomy. The optimal learning environment for gross anatomy is the dissection laboratory where students learn to recognize anatomical structures and their relationships in situ. We have developed an Anatomy Doc‐in‐a‐Box (ADiB) system where an anatomist using distance‐learning technologies ‘helps’ students in a dissection lab at a different site. The ADiB system consists of: (1) an anatomist sitting in his/her office with a computer and video camera; (2) a computer and 2 video cameras in the lab; (3) iChat AV software; (4) a catalogue of anatomical resources; (5) a secure server to host the ADiB‐student ‘consultation’. The camera in the faculty office allows the students to see the faculty member, providing a more personal aspect to the interaction. The cameras in the lab allow the anatomist to switch between seeing the students and seeing the dissection. The software allows the students and faculty to interact via audio and video providing an environment where questions can be asked and answered and anatomical structures can be identified ‘at a distance’ in real‐time. The catalogue provides the anatomist with additional electronic resources that s/he can ‘push’ to the student’s computer in the lab. We set up the ADiB at a prosected cadaver and made the ADiB available for student use during ‘office hours’. In this pilot project, we have demonstrated that many of the functions of a faculty member in the dissection lab can be performed ‘at a distance’ using the ADiB. Therefore, using the ADiB a geographically dispersed faculty could provide laboratory experience for the students at numerous medical schools.