It's more than a computer can deliver: gross anatomy--a rite of passage and a right to learning.

I was a first year medical student, but the beginning of medical education has remained stable. First-year students are introduced to their cadaver. They are arranged in teams of four or five students. They begin as medical students have begun for over 100 years, by dissecting and exploring the easily visible, so-called “gross” anatomy of the human body. The first look at the face, the hands, give the same panoply of reactions as those looks always have—a combination of trepidation, wonder and curiosity. Recently a debate in medical education circles has taken on some vigor. “Gross Anatomy lab takes up too much student time,” some say. “Three-dimensional computer programs can impart the necessary anatomical facts more efficiently.” Even a recent magazine article highlighted this debate.1 Some say it is too hard to get the donated bodies; a colleague from Glasgow, Scotland said as much when he explained that his medical school had abandoned the gross anatomy dissection in favor of dry labs. Oh, the short-sighted horror of these thoughts! In the fall of 2000, I spent a great deal of time with my “classmates” in the gross anatomy lab as the Class Mentor for the University of Wisconsin Medical School Class of 2004.2 My return to the “gross lab” was fascinating. To all those who would abandon the hands-on dissection of a human cadaver, I offer my own top 10 reasons why this medical rite of passage remains essential to medical education. 1. The presence of the cadaver indicates a donation decision