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Authors report here a survey of medical student feedback on the effectiveness of two different anatomy curricula at Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. Undergraduate medical students seeking the Bachelor in Medicine and Bachelor in Surgery (M.B.B.S.) degrees were divided into two groups by the duration of their respective anatomy curriculum. Group 1 students had completed a longer, 18-month curriculum whereas Group 2 counterparts followed a shorter, 12-month curriculum. Students' responses to a questionnaire were studied. Analysis of feedback from Groups 1 and 2 contrasted the effectiveness of the two anatomy curricula. The coverage of gross anatomy was rated adequate or more than adequate by 98% of Group 1 and 91% of Group 2. A desire for greater emphasis on gross anatomy teaching was expressed by 24% of Group 1 and 50% of Group 2 (P = 0.000). Two-thirds of all students felt that the one-year program was not adequate, and 90% of Group 1 and 74% of Group 2 felt that clinically oriented anatomy teaching required more emphasis. Dissection was helpful or very helpful for 94% of Group 1 and 88% of Group 2. This study suggests that a better understanding of gross anatomy was gained from a course of longer duration (18 months with 915 contact hr vs. 12 months with 671 contact hr). Students who completed the longer anatomy course had greater appreciation of the need for clinically oriented anatomy teaching and dissection. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)

Background: Traditional lecture-based teaching of anatomy tends to focus on the discipline per se rather than relating it to clinical conditions. As a result, students often lose interest in the basic sciences. We hypothesized that a lecture format that encourages students to relate anatomy to case presentations might help them in appreciating clinical relevance. We therefore proposed to develop, implement and evaluate innovative interactive clinical anatomy lectures (ICALs) for first year medical students of our institution as a method to implement the 'early clinical exposure' teaching strategy being promoted by the Medical Council of India., Methods: The first year medical students (n=150) were divided into two groups by lottery: the study group (n=75) and the control group (n=75). The study group received nine ICALs along with traditional gross anatomy lectures (TGL) and dissection. The control group received only TGL along with dissection. A post-test in clinical anatomy was conducted for both groups. The responses of the study group on TGL and ICALs on their learning and understanding of the clinical conditions were collected using the nominal group technique., Results and Conclusion: It is feasible to introduce early clinical exposure within lectures even with 150 students. There was a statistically significant (p<0.001) difference in the mean post-test scores of the two groups, which shows that ICALs are effective in correlating anatomical and clinical information to students. The nominal group technique responses of the study group showed that they appreciated it as a better method of teaching and learning., (Copyright 2015, NMJI.)