118 - Relevant Anatomy of the Ear for Medical Education

Poster Board Number: 118
There are separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – first hour
Even poster #s – second hour

Co-authors:

Derek Harmon - The Ohio State University

Abstract Body :
Introduction: Approximately 48% of residents enter specialties where understanding the anatomy of the ear is relevant for patient care. Unfortunately, the anatomical education of the ear in medical curricula has been taught inconsistently. A main contributor to the difficulty of this anatomical region is the spatial complexity of the structures. We aim to determine the anatomical structures of the ear that are essential based on the perspective of clinical faculty in otolaryngology (ENT) and primary care specialties such as pediatrics (PM), family (FM) and internal medicine (IM). In addition, we aim to assess the confidence that clinical faculty have in their residents, along with the confidence residents have in their spatial knowledge of the ear.    Methods: To assess the importance of each structure of the external (EE), middle (ME), and inner ear (IE), a list of the bold terms in the ear chapter of Netter’s Clinical Anatomy textbook was created. Using these terms, a Qualtrics survey was developed and distributed to program directors and residents via email. Clinical faculty in ENT, PM, FM, and IM were asked to rate the importance of each structure on a 7-point Likert scale (1=Not Important, 7= Essential). Faculty were also asked to rate the confidence they had in their resident’s orientation of the structures of the ear, using a 7-point Likert scale (1=Strongly Disagree, 7=Strongly Agree). Residents were asked to rate their confidence related to the spatial orientation of the anatomical structures using the same scale. Descriptive statistics and Kruskal-Wallis test were performed.    Results: Respondents consisted of 36 clinical faculty (20 ENT, 10 PM, 2 IM, and 4 FM) and 65 residents (22 ENT, 22 PM, 8 IM, and 4 FM). ENT faculty rated all three sections of the ear as more important and rated higher confidence in their residents compared to PM (importance: IE (p = 0.000), ME (p = 0.000), and EE (p = 0.014); confidence: IE (p = 0.039), ME (p = 0.014), and EE (0.044). Additionally, residents in ENT rated higher confidence in the EE compared to the other three specialties (FM: p = 0.000; IM: p = 0.004; PM: p = 0.001) as well as rated higher confidence in the ME compared to FM (p = 0.000) and PM (p = 0.003). Conclusion and Significance: This was the first study to determine the most important anatomy of the ear based on the perspective of clinicians in these specialties. Residents in these specialties lack confidence in their spatial orientation of these anatomical structures. We plan to design novel curricula to teach the relevant and challenging anatomy with a focus on the spatial orientation of these structures in the ear. This data provides insight for anatomists to utilize when designing or editing the curriculum associated with the ear, allowing prioritization of the most important structures.