The Institute of Anatomy at the Medical University of Innsbruck continues to focus on dissection training for doctors. Since 2023, around 2,000 doctors from 30 countries have already taken part in corresponding courses – in addition to around 840 students each year. For these, they work closely with the Innsbruck clinic, but also international university clinics, and primarily rely on body donations, it was told journalists in Innsbruck on Tuesday.
This breadth of “post-doctoral training” could certainly be considered a unique selling point of the Institute for Clinical-Functional Anatomy, said Institute Director Marko Konschake during a press tour. The doctors – and of course the students – have the great advantage that Innsbruck “has many body donations”. “There are around 200 every year,” Konschake specified when asked. These bodies are the best place to “test new surgical methods,” said the Institute Director.
Particularly in demand in the field of hand surgery
There is particular demand for testing new techniques in the field of hand surgery, said Rohit Arora, director of the Innsbruck University Clinic for Orthopaedics and Traumatology, with which the institute cooperates. This is an “established collaboration” in which doctors from all over the world learn from specimens how to “treat nerve constriction in a minimally invasive manner using ultrasound,” Arora explained.
The Innsbruck focus on “haptics and body donations” has decisive advantages, explained Konschake. Bodies are simply “different” and “a purely digital education does not do justice to this fact,” stressed Konschake. “Haptics can definitely not be experienced on a digital dissection table,” he explained. Nevertheless, there is potential in the combination of “human bodies and digital tools: “With projects such as 3D eyelids, the institute wants to play a leading role in the development of digital possibilities.”
The “dominance” of haptics
Wolfgang Fleischhacker, Rector of the Medical University of Innsbruck, also championed the “predominance” of haptics. “Physical contact with bodies is of the utmost importance for students,” the Rector stressed. There, one learns “respect for dead matter” and has the opportunity to “learn things that are not possible with the living body.”
At the moment, the institute is hosting a workshop with 35 participants entitled “Nerve compression syndromes of the upper extremities”. Numerous specimens were already available for the participants – still well packaged. Meanwhile, the nearby histological laboratory is dedicated to researching human tissue at the cellular level. For this, small samples are taken from body donations, dehydrated in the laboratory and embedded in wax. This creates “a block” that is cut with a special diamond knife, explained Konschake.
