Anatomy Team Extol Collaboration and Instagram
“I think it is difficult to find people you can rely on and work with like this. We have a strong team, and we are incredibly grateful,” says Dr Jian Yang.
For many HKUMed students, the course on gross anatomy dissection is a rite of passage. Here is where they meet their first “patient”, a donated cadaver. For many students, this makes the anatomy dissection lab a sacred place.
Running the anatomy lab without hiccups is no small feat. Each time the course is offered, lecturers prepare new teaching materials, lab technicians move in over 30 cadavers, and each attending student dons lab gowns and protective gear as they prepare to learn the intricacies of human anatomy.
For a behind-the-scenes look at the anatomy dissection course, we caught up with Dr Jian Yang, Dr Tomasz Cecot, Dr Mandy Liu, and Dr Rocky Cheung to discuss how teamwork and collaboration are the keys to their success, and why Instagram is helping them break down barriers.
HKUMed: The Anatomy Dissection course is one of the most important courses for our students, can you tell us about the team that runs this class?
Dr Jian Yang: You cannot run a class with 300 students and 30 plus cadavers by yourself!
We have a team of teachers from diverse backgrounds, and we have developed different activities that need to be achieved in-class. Each activity is led by one person, which means our classes cannot be taught by one person.
Dr Rocky Cheung: The technical team plays a critical role in the class. Imagine moving 30 bodies from the mortuary to the anatomy dissection lab for the dissection classes. That is one heck of a job.
HKUMed: We have talked before about virtual reality (VR) in anatomy class. Does using VR require fewer people to support the class?
Dr Jian Yang: Our VR anatomy lab does not simply have one station doing demonstrations for 200 students. We have more than a hundred VR sets, and when we run all of them at the same time, there are bound to be some issues, just like any computer game. We have technicians on standby to solve these problems.
HKUMed: I would imagine in the past that being a VR expert wasn’t part of the job description of an Anatomy Lab Technician?
Dr Rocky Cheung: Even 10 years ago, you wouldn’t imagine that being on your job description.
Dr Jian Yang: Yeah, you would not have been expected to know how to set up, calibrate, troubleshoot, debug the system — these are now the jobs of our environment team and technicians. Everyone here is learning from the ground up, but they are learning very quickly and becoming experts.
HKUMed: Now that you have these advanced and robust VR Anatomy teaching tools, have others approached you about collaborating?
Dr Jian Yang: Some universities in mainland China have asked whether we would want to collaborate, because they want to learn from our experience. However, I think a virtual reality course this large may not exist elsewhere. I doubt any other medical school could match our infrastructure.
Dr Rocky Cheung: The software is there, buts making sure we have enough hardware is challenging. You cannot have a robust program with only two to three sets of these devices.
HKUMed: What are your next steps?
Dr Tomasz Cecot: I think as a group, we must be more open to the results of our VR Lab, and whether we are making learning fun and enjoyable. We are also looking for collaborations as our next step.
Dr Rocky Cheung: With technology you never know how it will be received. To a certain extent in education, you are going to have some who like new technology and some who do not. That is just the way it is.
HKUMed: We hear there is a popular Anatomy Instagram account produced by this team. How did it start?
Dr Jian Yang: We run a coffee club every now and then, where we make coffee, sit back and chat, and brainstorm ideas. Sometimes it is just for fun.
One day, this idea of an Instagram account came up. People in the US and UK began using social media as a platform for teaching several years ago. Tom (Dr Tomasz Cecot) has a lot of experience using social media to interact with audiences and students, so we thought, why not create our own account for anatomy?
We can use social media not just to interact with students but also in our teaching for multiple choice questions or even short form answers.
Dr Tomasz Cecot: Social media is a very approachable tool and students feel that it is much easier to ask questions there. I have had more than 150 interactions with students on social media so far, while few students contact me on my University email. The tone on social media is casual, which makes students less afraid to ask questions. Normally, they would keep quiet because in “official” situations, they feel intimidated.
HKUMed: This informal or casual environment, is it a good thing?
Dr Tomasz Cecot: Is it good or bad? I don’t know.
But I think it is good for learning, and for supporting them and giving them this learning space.
HKUMed: Any plans to publish on other social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook?
Dr Jian Yang: Students from different regions use different social media. For example, in the US people use Twitter, but Twitter does not have a strong presence in Hong Kong.
We use Facebook, but students may not have a Facebook account. Normally, when you check their Facebook account, the last post will be from two years ago.
There was one trend when they used Snapchat. However, you cannot use Snapchat for our purposes as none of the posts stay there for long. We want something the students can come back to.
The best way to approach our students is Instagram. Instagram, by far, is the most widely adopted social media among our students compared to other outlets.
HKUMed: What makes your team work well together?
Dr Rocky Cheung: Well, we have a common goal. We love the subject.
Dr Mandy Liu: We are all passionate about teaching.
HKUMed: With your differing strengths, how do you complement each other?
Dr Rocky Cheung: We have experienced team members. Tom and Jian have been teaching for a very long time and they know the subject matter inside out, and how things work in the classroom. Mandy and I are younger and less experienced.
Dr Jian Yang: But you are energetic and bring a lot of inspiration. This is important.
With our diverse backgrounds, for example Mandy’s clinical background and Rocky’s background in human anatomy, we all bring something to the table. When we come together, we all have ideas to share and that gets us closer to our common goal, which is to make our teaching better.
The most important thing is that we have all these factors together — different backgrounds and different experiences. We also trust each other. If there was an unpleasant person on the team, it would not work out.
HKUMed: Do you have disagreements?
Dr Tomasz Cecot: Yes, there are a lot of disagreements, or different perspectives. But because of these differences, it is more interesting. We can step back from our comfort zones and revisit what we’re doing, and why we are doing this.
Dr Jian Yang: I think it is difficult to find people you can rely on and work with like this. We have a strong team, and we are incredibly grateful.
*This Q and A was edited from a conversation with the anatomy team.
