The lab features four cadavers, with two new ones received every semester from the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine Anatomical Gift Program (Fairborn, Ohio). Each semester, eight students who have earned high marks in an upper-level anatomy course can participate in the human dissection course (a biology elective). During that semester, students work alongside the anatomy professor learning dissection technique and proper care of the cadaver. They gain more than 40 hours of hands‑on dissection experience on a newly donated cadaver (4:1 student-to-cadaver ratio). This is a valuable experience, especially for students who will be entering medical, dental, or physician assistant (PA) school the following year. Additionally, the cadavers dissected the previous semester are used in each of the other undergraduate anatomy courses offered at the University. “We’ve had a number of alumni say that they felt their experience in the dissection lab gave them an advantage going into medical school, since Gross Anatomy is often the first course encountered in medical school,” said Melissa (Hartman) Burns ’96, Assistant Professor of Biology. “Many of their grad school classmates have little or no exposure to human cadavers,” she added. “I believe having a Gross Anatomy Lab at the undergraduate level is a unique and valuable learning tool, especially for students pursuing careers in healthcare.” The dissection lab also reinforces the learning experience for students in the other anatomy classes. “To see the actual organs and muscles, to be able to touch them, to pick them up and hold them, provides a hands-on interaction in a way that can’t be replicated by reading a textbook,” said Burns. “But once you’ve had that hands-on interaction, you can go to a textbook or an anatomy atlas, and it will make a lot more sense.” That experience has helped Cedarville premed alumni who are now in medical schools across the country. According to Burns, over the past five-year period (2017–2021), 82% of Cedarville premed students who applied to medical school were accepted (58 of 71), and over that same time, 63% (45 of 71) were accepted as first-time applicants. Based on statistics from the American Association of Medical Colleges, 40.3 percent of applicants were accepted to medical nationwide during the same fiveyear period. HIGH-TECH STUDY: THE ANATOMAGE TABLE Complementing the cadaver lab, Cedarville’s School of Allied Health recently invested in an interactive digital anatomy device called the Anatomage Table. Using two giant touch screens, students in the Master of Athletic Training program will analyze detailed scans of four people who gave permission for their bodies to be used before they passed. They will also be able to review case studies to determine the underlying disease processes of these patients. The table will allow students to move and rotate bodies, adding and removing layers to see the skin, muscle, bones, blood vessels, and internal organs. Faculty members will be able to integrate the table into quizzes and lectures, asking students to identify various body structures. The Master of Athletic Training program will also use traditional cadavers when it launches this summer, but unlike cadavers, students will be able to use the Anatomage Table outside of class on their own. The table will also allow students to instantly analyze structures that would be difficult to access in a traditional cadaver. And while students cannot put cadavers back together when they have finished dissecting, they can add and remove layers of the human body on the Anatomage Table at will. “The Anatomage Table will enhance what we will be using in cadaveric studies,” said Mike Weller, Associate Professor of Athletic Training and the program’s director. “It might better Cedarville is one of only a few universities in Ohio with an Anatomage Table. 82% Medical School Acceptance Rate (Compared to 40.3% Nationally) 12 | Cedarville Magazine
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