Medical Curriculum and the Teaching of Anatomy in Nigeria: A Thought for the 21" Century

Abstract

The approach to the teaching of anatomy is changing in many institutions amidst the calls for the elimination of cadaver dissections as a teaching method. The usefulness of the traditional model of medical education also seems not to be adequate for the education of our 21^st century medical scientists and practitioners as it produces more practitioners and less of groomed scientists. The level of social sophistication indicates a review of the curriculum so as to incorporate virtual reality into medical education and thus maintained the necessary “umbilical cord” between learning and practice. An integration of the traditional model which involves dissection and classroom teaching in a departmentally based manner and the systems based model which involves the teaching body realistic incorporation of virtual education seems to be the way out for the 21st century.