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The SARS‐CoV‐2 (COVID‐19) outbreak adversely affected medical school education and drastically reduced in‐person learning, specifically affecting gross anatomy laboratory dissection. Depending on the academic calendar schedule, some schools were interrupted in the middle of anatomy teaching while others had more lead time to prepare but schools suddenly faced an imposed demand for a transition to distance learning. SUNY Downstate had its anatomy education interrupted due to the Covid‐19 shut down. To gap the previous laboratory experience of students and complete the semester anatomy curriculum, a series of dissected abdominal videos were created and distributed to all first‐year medical students (n=208). The video‐based curriculum and the current student experience taking anatomy without cadaveric dissections were assessed via pre/post‐tests and a five‐question survey. A paired single tailed t‐test comparing student responses (n=164) in the pre‐ versus post‐test was statistically significant (P < 0.002) while 92% of students (n=136) reported that their previous time dissecting prepared them to learn through videos without the benefit of hands‐on dissection. Icahn School of Medicine adopted digital Grant's Dissector utilizing their accompanying narrated videos. Faculty voiced over the narration, however, permitting emphasis of material, directing pacing of course, and tying content to lecture and physical exams. Complete anatomy was used to augment the experience, with 3D virtual dissections and enhance the visualization of the structures, however the videos remained as the driver of content delivery. Weill Cornell Medicine created, and customized anatomy prosected material videotaping the show and tell sessions integrating powerpoint slides to tie in lecture content and clinical correlates. Results from all three schools highlight the technical success of implementing an anatomy video‐based curriculum in response to COVID‐19. Survey findings describe a unique cohort of students who were compelled to participate in a video‐based curriculum after having learned anatomy in a donor body laboratory environment and student performance on summative exams in general equaled or exceeded scores from previous years. Overall, anatomy education through videos, digital platforms, and apps can offer a reliable stop‐gap solution in the absence of traditional cadaveric dissection in a short‐term, provisional model. However, the experience of learning anatomy from a human body in laboratory is irreplaceable and the future now seems to point to a combination of these modalities, and others, such as virtual reality or augmented reality, yet to be adapted and customized to our educational settings.

Among modern humans, otitis media (benign otitis media with effusion and acute otitis media, AOM) is the second most common pediatric clinical conditions. Acute otitis media is a fatal disease that...

Anatomy education in medical schools has evolved since the Flexnor report of 1910 with traditional resources of cadaveric dissections, prosected specimens, lectures, anatomy textbooks, atlases and ...

Mitochondrial Transcription Termination Factor 4 (MTERF4) has been well established as a transcription factor for mitochondrial ribosomal biogenesis and was identified as a gene of interest via exo...

Bisphenol A (BPA) is found in human urine and fat tissue. Higher urinary BPA concentrations are associated with arterial hypertension. To shed light on the underlying mechanism, we orally administered BPA (4 nM to 400 μM in drinking water) to 8-wk-old CD11 mice over 30 d. Mice developed dosage-dependent high blood pressure (systolic 130 ± 12 vs. 170 ± 12 mmHg; EC50 0.4 μM), impairment of acetylcholine (AcH)-induced carotid relaxation (0.66 ± 0.08 vs. 0.44 ± 0.1 mm), a 1.7-fold increase in arterial angiotensin II (AngII), an 8.7-fold increase in eNOS mRNA and protein, and significant eNOS-dependent superoxide and peroxynitrite accumulation. AngII inhibition with 0.5 mg/ml losartan reduced oxidative stress and normalized blood pressure and endothelium-dependent relaxation, which suggests that AngII uncouples eNOS and contributes to the BPA-induced endothelial dysfunction by promoting oxidative and nitrosative stress. Microarray analysis of mouse aortic endothelial cells revealed a 2.5-fold increase in expression of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II-α (CaMKII-α) in response to 10 nM BPA, with increased expression of phosphorylated-CaMKII-α in carotid rings of BPA-exposed mice, whereas CaMKII-α inhibition with 100 nM autocamptide-2-related inhibitor peptide (AIP) reduced BPA-mediated increase of superoxide. Administration of CaMKII-α inhibitor KN 93 reduced BPA-induced blood pressure and carotid blood velocity in mice, and reverted BPA-mediated carotid constriction in response to treatment with AcH. Given that CaMKII-α inhibition prevents BPA-mediated high blood pressure, our data suggest that BPA regulates blood pressure by inducing AngII/CaMKII-α uncoupling of eNOS.

SUNY Downstate Medical Center has one of the most diverse student bodies in the country, yet medicine today does not reflect this ethnic diversity. To ensure that underrepresented students receive ...

The art of teaching anatomy has been traditionally performed via dissection. Most anatomy courses, ranging from fetal pig dissection in high school (HS) to human donor dissection in medical school,...