The Microanatomy Lesson

A friend of Dr. Dev (Fictional Name), during his MBBS days, in AIIMS, New Delhi, asked him to help him revise the micro-anatomy slides before his exams. He had arranged a microscope and anatomy slides for the revision session.

For Non-medicos: Anatomy is the study of the structure of the human body. Microanatomy is the study of the anatomy at a microscopic level, i.e. how the different parts of the body look under a microscope.

Dr. Dev took a slide of the small intestine and after focussing the slide in the microscope, he started explaining that this is small intestine as we can see the simple columnar epithelial cell in the mucosal (inner) side, the smooth muscle cells in the middle and serosal cells in the outer most part.

On hearing this, his friend got irritated and asked angrily, ‘What are you talking about this cell and that cell? Please explain and teach properly!’

As his friend was midway in his first-year course, Dr. Dev got surprised that what details he could not understand. Dev asked his friend to clarify what he wanted him to e,xplain. His friend replied, ‘what is this columnar epithelial cells, that muscles cells and serosal cells you are talking about’?

Dr. Dev got surprised. The cells are like alphabets to sentences. Cells come together to forms tissue, like alphabets makes words. The tissues are organized to form organs like words form sentences. Finally, the sentence makes paragraph like the organs make the human body.

If someone does not know the alphabet how can he read a paragraph? Similarly, if someone does not know how the different types of cells look under the microscope he or she cannot identify what tissue he or she is seeing. If one cannot identify the tissue being seen under the microscope then one cannot identify the organ being seen. 

Dr. Dev did some background digging. As his friend was a foreign student, due to administrative delay he joined AIIMS, New Delhi, late when the classes had already started. The basics of microanatomy, the different types of cells, was taught in the first few classes that he had missed due to his late joining. This spoiled the entire understanding of microanatomy for the rest of the academic period. It was a wonder that he scored at least some marks in his first exam. 

Once Dr. Dev learned this fact, he started explaining to his friend right from the basics which were taught in the beginning classes and slowly build up his knowledge to the level of his other classmates.

Sometimes students miss the early classes of a subject for a variety of reasons. Some reason such as late joining due to late allotment of college may be beyond the student’s control. But sometimes students deliberately miss the first few classes as they think they are not important or they want to enjoy, relax and just chill for some times after studying so hard to crack the entrance exam to the college. They do not understand the importance of starting to study seriously from day one as the early classes form the foundation of later knowledge.

Without a good strong foundation one cannot build a strong building of knowledge.

 

So, whether microanatomy or any other subject, do not miss the early first classes and take them seriously.

If due to some reason you miss the classes, then start at the earliest to study and cover up the missed course, either by extra classes or with the help of your teachers and classmates.

 (Based on allegedly true incident)

— ND

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm.

The Microscope

Please Note: This article is intended for 1^st and 2^nd year medical students and their parents and guardians. Others may please skip this post.

Even though it was relatively expensive at that time, some students in AIIMS, New Delhi, had bought their own personal microscope to help in their studies.

For 1^st and 2^nd MBBS students, having micro-anatomy and pathology as subjects should seriously consider getting a microscope to aid in their studies. Both these subjects require the study of microscopic slides. If you have your own microscope, you can study the slides easily in your home and hostel if you had missed the classes or revise the slides before the exams. You can take the help of your colleagues or seniors. 

The next question is how to get a microscope? You can buy it or borrow it from your seniors or colleagues. You can get together with a few of your friends and buy the microscope collectively, each contributing some money. 

Once you have cleared your 2^nd year and passed your pathology exams, then you can consider gifting it your juniors in 1^st year or sell it, recovering some of your buying cost.

An example of collectively buying resource for study purpose and precaution to take is given in:

 https://agnipathdoctors.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-collective-skeleton.html

 (Based on allegedly true incidents)

— ND

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm. 

The Collective Skeleton

Please Note: This article is intended only for first year medical undergraduate students. Non-Medicos and others may not read this article.

Now that the story of the skeleton has come to end at the ‘The Blacklist’ (or is it starting?), Dr. Dev recalled the story of his own skeleton, or at least which was one-third his, when he was in his first year of MBBS in AIIMS, New Delhi.

In the first year, the MBBS students have to study the anatomy or structure of the body. An important part of this is study of the bones or osteology. Although in the anatomy practical the bones are shown and their important parts and landmarks are demonstrated in detail, it is very useful to have your personal specimen to study in your hostel room, especially before exams.

Dr. Dev realized this fact late. By the time he contacted his senior to borrow some bone specimens; most of his seniors had already given the bones to his classmates.

Also the specimen of large bones were readily available among students, the complete set of small bones such those of the hand and foot, the different vertebrae, ribs, etc. was not available among the students. Being small, these bones are easily misplaced and lost.

Stealing or ‘Borrowing’ the bones from the anatomy practical lab (dissection hall) was also not possible for him.

At that time an advertisement was placed at the notice board of the anatomy dissection hall, announcing sale by post of unarticulated, semi-articulated and fully articulated human skeleton, by a firm in Calcutta (presently Kolkata). Due to their cost it was not possible for Dr. Dev to buy the skeleton by himself. So Dev got together with two of his friends and they bought collectively a semi-articulated human skeleton.

The study on these actual human skeleton bones was one of the reasons Dr. Dev managed to get comparatively good marks in anatomy exam with relatively less study.

Buying collectively had an another good side-effect that these friends frequently studied the bones together, helping each other by taking mock viva on the bones, etc.

Tip: Having actual bones to study can give a boost to your learning of human anatomy.

Tip: Start borrowing the bones from senior early.

Tip: Buying a set of bones will help study comprehensively for your exams.

Tip: You can buy these bones in partnership with your friends if not affordable by you alone. 

Tip: Choose your partners wisely, so that you can study together without much friction related to the distribution of the bones. Due to the adjustable nature of his friends, there were never any bad feelings among Dev and his friends regarding sharing of the bones. It also helped that the three friends had a different preferred time of the study. One friend used to study early in the morning and day, another friend used to study in the day and evening and Dr. Dev himself used to study in the night.

(Based on true incident)

— ND
© Author. All rights reserved. 

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm. 

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The Table Hopper

Please Note: This article is intended for 1^st year medical students.
 

A simple but smart way to improve you performance in gross anatomy viva exam is to go table hopping.

In the gross anatomy dissection hall, usually students are divided in batches and allotted one particular dissection table. The students are expected to stay only at their allotted table and dissect and study the cadaver allotted to them.

The problem with this approach is that, student get so familiar with the cadaver allotted to them that different muscles, blood vessels, nerve, etc. get memorized to them by sight.

In exam, when asked questions on different cadaver specimen, the students gets confused.

It is like you can recognize your friends instantly, but get lost for words if you are asked to describe them accurately to a stranger.

So, the smart students go to different dissection tables and try to identify the structures there. This exercises their brains and teaches them the scientific method to identify the body structures. The students also get to see the different variations in normal anatomy, which will help in exams.

For example, in their dissection table, the student knows where the radial nerve is, but when he goes to a different table, he has start from step one, i.e. identify the posterior surface of the arm, identify the triceps muscle, look below it to find the nerve, which will be radial nerve.

They can also ask their fellow students at the different dissection table, to point out the important structures to them, so easily revising the anatomy.

And if someone comes to your dissection table and ask you to demonstrate the various anatomical structures, don’t take this as an intrusion in your territory. Make use of this occasion to demonstrate the various structures to your visiting fellow student as this provides an opportunity to practice for your own anatomy viva again improving your marks.

But beware, table hopping can be seen as sign of indiscipline by the teachers, which may be counter-productive in exam. In our time, Dr. M. L. Ajmani, used to particularly frown upon such table hopping. So, move and stay invisible like a ninja. 

(Based on true experience)

— ND

© Author. All rights reserved.

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm. 
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