A survey of essential anatomy from the perspective of anesthesiology, emergency medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and orthopedics resident physicians.

Background: Recent changes in anatomy curricula in undergraduate medical education (UME), including pedagogical changes and reduced time, pose challenges for foundational learning. Consequently, it is important to ask clinicians what anatomical content is important for their clinical specialty, which when taken collectively, can inform curricular development.

Methods: This study surveyed 55 non-primary care residents in anesthesiology (AN; N = 6), emergency medicine (EM; N = 15), obstetrics and gynecology (OB; N = 13), and orthopedics (OR; N = 21) to assess the importance of 907 anatomical structures across all anatomical regions.

Needs assessment of essential anatomy: The perspective of adult primary care resident physicians.

Curricular development and modification involve first identifying a problem and then performing a needs assessment, which can guide the design of curricular components. Pedagogical changes, coupled with reductions in curricular time for gross anatomy, pose challenges and impose restrictions within medical school curricula. In order to make anatomy education effective and efficient, it is important to determine the anatomy considered essential for medical education through a targeted needs assessment.