A course in anatomy for emergency medicine residents.

The understanding of human anatomy is a critical component of the practice of medicine. A specialty with the breadth of emergency medicine is best approached with a sound basis in anatomy and pathophysiology which leads to a better understanding and differential diagnosis of the disease process. It was the authors' opinion that a specialty with the surgical emphasis found in emergency medicine should have a correlating emphasis in the anatomical sciences. Subsequent testing of PGY-II residents demonstrated a fair to poor understanding of anatomy when gauged by a standard freshman anatomy examination tailored to clinical circumstances. This paper reports on a 3-year experience in giving a 1-week 40-hour anatomy course which included didactic presentations by the anatomy and surgery departments. The impact of this course on clinical practice, problems in its preparation, and outcome of a shared experience with residents from general surgery are discussed. The course is felt to be a successful addition to the training of emergency medicine specialists.