Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: thedoc on 14/08/2011 00:30:21
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Have you ever wondered why people donate their body to medical science? Or what goes on in the dissection room? Medical student, Katrina Stewart speaks to doctor and film-maker, Paul Trotman, about his new film, Donated to Science. The film explores the journey of body donation from the point of view of both the donors and the students.
Read the article (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/articles/article/donated-to-science-1/) then tell us what you think...
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From the film linked above.
Otago is one of the last medical schools in the world where students still do significant human dissection
That is simply NOT TRUE.
In the USA, Gross Anatomy is part of every medical school curriculum.
Now, I did notice that the New Zealand Medical Students were much younger than US Medical Students.
There are some tremendous new ways to visualize the human body, including much better imaging. Also sliced bodies, & Etc. However, one can't study all the mysteries of the body with books like Netter's.
Perhaps Gross Anatomy also helps to demystify the living/death aspect of the human body. Personally I would include more personal information from the Donor, including a redacted version of the medical history. With new E-Charting, it would be much easier to redact personal information out of the files. There would be benefits of including more pathology as part of the Gross Anatomy.
Personally, I think it is a shame that some schools are choosing skip this vital part of one's education.
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Last time I checked at least some UK medical schools had full body dissection by students rather than prosection. Seem to be agreeing with everyone of yours posts so far today Clifford
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We have mostly prosection at our med school, but I believe the medics still do some dissection in their later years.
I did some prosection as part of my degree, it does help enormously, nothing can replace it. Only plasticised bodies come anywhere hear it.
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First, I am ready to donate my body after going through your awful registration process, trying to figure out what is the number on a submirged dog or is it a dog or cat? [;)] [;)]
Nevertheless, here goes.
I am a “body” not a med student. The film interests me since I know absolutely zero about donating my body. My drivers license says I agree to donating organs, since a successful donation seems like the only good that could come out of a fatal auto accident. I feel dissecting classes should continue in med schools so that students study anatomy on a real human body. This should be augmented with the computer generated 3D images and tools to give the students realistic training.
A couple of personal points - until reaching about my 60s, I felt there was absolutely no way that I could be any kind of medical professional - MD, nurse, EMT, military corpsman. Thought I would fall over at the sight of blood and guts.
Now, for some reason, I do not fear bodies, injuries and care. No idea why, and I salute the young people who willingly go into medical professions.
I underwent a standard radical prostectomy after searching high and low for a doctor skilled in the new (at the time) computer-aided, minimally invasive techniques. I finally found a doctor who told me I would be his first patient doing this new technique, although he had done it on animals. By now I was ready for even that level of expertise.
That was not enough expertise, as it turned out. The doctor was unaware that the prostrate, earlier reduced in size by chemotherapy, would not be big enough for him to use the new minimally invasive technique that I so wanted. Instead, my operation was particularly difficult and there was a long, painful recovery and not as good a success as I expected, even from the older technique. I don’t know if earlier training on humans would have helped the doctor, but maybe the experie ence will be mentioned to, or talked about, by new doctors.[/b
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The dental students often got to just see the dissections done by the medical students, somewhat like amateur prosections, but I'm sure even the limited hands-on experience was good for them too.
As far as the connection of Gross Anatomy and Surgery. It is somewhat distant. Certainly the surgeons have to be very familiar with nerves, vessels, organs and etc. But, it isn't treated as an actual surgury, for example how to remove a galbladder. And, the preserved tissue has a different feel than living tissue. In the USA, surgery also requires a several year surgical residency program (after the MD), and often several additional years of speciality training. Plus lifelong additional training requirements. Rural GP's might do some minor procedures, but typically nothing complex.
Treating a long-term issue, the surgeon should have had an idea what to expect, but prior chemo, radiation, and/or seeding can have significant impacts on the tissue. But, often one doesn't really know what to expect until one gets inside and actually sees the tissue.