There are concerns in the literature that the use of case-based teaching of anatomy could be compromising the depth and scope of anatomy learned by students in a problem-based learning curriculum. Poor selection of clinical cases that are used as vehicles for teaching/learning anatomy may be the root problem because some clinical cases do not provide enough opportunities to learn anatomy and are, therefore, inappropriate for case-based teaching. Although anatomy educators are expected to respond to the identified deficiencies of case-based anatomy teaching, making sure that students acquire sufficient anatomical knowledge to practice safely and successfully, there are no tools available that can help improve the selection of clinical cases for case-based teaching. The author proposes a composite index, which incorporates considerations of anatomical knowledge for evaluating clinical cases/conditions for suitability in case-based anatomy teaching. The development of the case anatomical knowledge index (CAKI) using a modified Guttman procedure is described. The scalability of the index was measured using the coefficient of reproducibility. A total of 47 clinicians participated in the validation activities that measured interrater and intraclass reliability. The CAKI was able to consistently discriminate between clinical cases/conditions with higher demand for anatomical knowledge than those with lower demand for anatomical knowledge. A review of the literature suggests that such an index has not been previously reported. Given the concerns about the depth and scope of anatomy learning in case-based teaching, these findings have international relevance.
(c) 2009 American Association of Anatomists.