An International Partnership of 12 Anatomy Departments – Improving Global Health through Internationalization of Medical Education

BACKGROUND: At a time of global interconnectedness, the internationalization of medical education has become important. Anatomy as an academic discipline, with its close connections to the basic sciences and to medical education, can easily be connected with global health and internationalization of medical education. Here the authors present an international program based on a partnership between twelve anatomy departments in ten countries, on four continents. Details of a proposed plan for the future direction of the program are also discussed. OBJECTIVE: The aim is to improve global healthcare by preparing future global healthcare leaders via early international networking, international collaboration and exchange, intercultural experience, and connecting two seemingly distant academic disciplines – anatomy and global health – via internationalization of medical education. METHODS: Based in the anatomy course, the program involved early international collaboration between preclinical medical and dental students. The program provided a stepwise progression for learning about healthcare and intercultural topics beyond pure anatomy education – starting with virtual small groups of international students, who subsequently presented their work to a larger international audience during group videoconferences. The above progressed to in-person visits for research internships in the basic sciences within industrialized countries. FINDINGS: Students appreciated the international and intercultural interaction, learned about areas outside the scope of anatomy (e.g., differences in healthcare education and delivery systems, Public and Global Health challenges, health ethics, and cultural enrichment), and valued the exchange travel for basic sciences research internships and cultural experience. CONCLUSIONS: This unique collaboration of international anatomy departments can represent a new role for the medical anatomy course beyond pure anatomy teaching – involving areas of global health and internationalization of medical education – and could mark a new era of international collaboration among anatomists.