Anatomy is the oldest and most basic of
medical disciplines, dating back to the era of Aristotle and Soccrates. It is
also very contentious, especially when it comes to the dissection of the human
body for training purposes. The utilization of human material falls under the
legal and statutory requirements of the National Health Act of 2003 and as such
is very stringently controlled.
On a tuition level, Anatomy and Histology
is involved in the training of undergraduate students in all disciplines at the
FMHS as well as postgraduate (MMed) students in Psychiatry, Neurology,
Neurosurgery, Radiodiagnosis, Nuclear medicine and MChD in
Maxillo-Facial-Oral Surgery, Orthodontics, Periodontics, Prostodontics. Teaching facilities include lecture halls, an
Undergraduate Microscopy
Laboratory equipped 142 microscopes for student use. Dissection Halls
with cadavers, Lodox(R) statscan(R) images of each
cadaver as well as articulated skeletons to assist medical students in learning
practical Anatomy.
In the research field, we have BSc Honours,
MSc and PhD students in various research disciplines. Research Groups include: Comparative Anatomy, Medical Education, Islet- and Musculoskeletal Research, Biological-
and Forensic Anthropology and Clinical
Variation Anatomy.
The core research facilities include: a Research Microscopy Laboratory
housing various microscopy systems that can assist researchers in image
analysis, fluorescent microscopy, stereo microscopy as well as a state of the
art inverted laser dissection microscope system; The Kirsten Skeletal Collection with osteological
material of at least 680 complete individuals and some incomplete skeletons; a
Cell Culture Laboratory; and a fully equipped Research Histology
Laboratory.
The
Kirsten
Anatomy Museum has been converted into a Museum for Medical Morphological Sciences (a first in Africa) where exhibits in Anatomy, Pathology, Biological
Anthropology, Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, Medical History, Orthopaedics,
Histology, Forensic Science, Parasitology and Paleontology are on display.
