The anatomy media library with e-learning facility at Kabul Medical University is officially ready for use and we hope the students can benefit from it immensely. The media library is part of the Anatomy Teaching Innovation Program and it was inaugurated by Afghanistan’s Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Farida Momand!
More about Anatomy Teaching Innovation Program:
For medical students anatomy is an essential element of their education. Without knowledge of anatomy, education of medical specialists is impossible. Imagine the result of an operation performed by a surgeon who has never felt before the natural tissue and whose anatomical knowledge is only based on books and plastic models.
This is currently the case for almost all young doctors in Afghanistan at the start of their clinical career. Over the last 20 years, anatomy education in Afghanistan has been inadequate. The process of fixation and preparation of bodies for educational purposes has been prohibited, resulting in loss of knowledge regarding the preparation techniques and a declined interest in innovation of the anatomy curriculum. This has created a huge gap in the anatomical knowledge of students and physicians. KEIHAN foundation was asked by the anatomy department of the Kabul Medical University (KMU) to provide support to innovation of the teaching of anatomy.
The aim of this project is to reintroduce and innovate the anatomic preparation techniques and teaching by educating two doctors (anatomists) from the KMU at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). The anatomists will be trained extensively in the Netherlands in order to independently function as self‐supporting, professional anatomical teachers at KMU. Also in order to set up, extend and modernize the anatomical education in Afghanistan. In addition, this project proposed to develop e‐learning support. This includes establishing a media library with personal computers having internet access providing several web‐based learning and reference programs which can be used by the students, tutors, physicians and other medical workers.
In 2013 we trained one anatomist from the KMU’s anatomy department in LUMC for 10 months. During this program the trainee participated in the following activities:
- The trainee completed a whole dissection program where he dissected a human body by himself according to the guidelines.
- The trainee participated as tutor during the anatomical dissection lessons of Dutch medical students. During these lessons the trainee was not only teaching the Dutch students, but he also developed didactic teaching skills and actively experienced the Dutch medical educational system.
- The trainee was involved in plastination and fixation activities of the department. In this part of the training the trainee got a complete view of these two techniques. In addition he also learned how to maintain and preserve a prepared cadaver.
- Development of an e‐dissection manual (e‐learning). The trainee developed a complete e‐dissection manual of the thorax, abdomen and musculoskeletal system. This manual was immediately in use for teaching purposes at LUMC and was evaluated by Dutch students as excellent. The manual was also provided to KMU for teaching purposes.
- The trainee was involved in theoretical lectures of the Dutch students. The trainee made a selection of anatomy and Q&A lectures,clinical lessons (e‐learning) and anatomical books valuable for KMU. These teaching materials were subsequently provided to KMU.
After the media library is delivered and installed with the e-learning programs developed over the course of this project, the foundation is planning to deliver two prepared human cadavers to KMU in order to start with anatomical lessons at the anatomy department. In addition we would like to provide (online) guest lectures from the Netherlands and perform visits to KMU to support the re‐organization of the dissection room and teaching materials.
To realize the abovementioned goals in order to support the higher education of Afghanistan we need your (financial) support. Your donations will be highly appreciated.