About

The title of the FIC was amended from Supranational Anatomical Projects to Support for Anatomy Professionals to better reflect the purpose of the committee. The membership was also refreshed to include anatomists from across the world.

The aims of FICSAP are to work collaboratively to:

• identify associations that seek manpower development and training in the field of Anatomy
• assist with support in the form of training to the areas identified

Members

Helen Nicholson (Chair)

Representative from N America -Segun Oyedele

Representative from S America – Susana Biasutto

Representative from Africa – Samuel Asala

Representative from Asia – Guo-Fang Tseng

Representative from Europe – Guido Macchiarelli

Representative from Oceania – Stephanie Woodley

Representative from PEAP - Carol Hartmann

Representative from FIPAR – Anne Agur

Goals

• Identify associations/institutions requiring help in the training of anatomists
• Work with the President’s Emerging Anatomists Programme to develop training programmes for emerging anatomists
• Facilitate cooperative exchange of staff and postgraduate students in bilateral or multilateral collaborations
• Facilitate leadership development and mentorship programmes for mid-career anatomists
• In collaboration with the President of the IFAA identify sources of funding to assist in the development of human capacity in anatomy

Activity over the last 5 years (2019-2024)

The first action of the newly created FICSAP was to develop an ambitious 5 year plan, this was completed in early 2020 (appendix or https://ifaa.net/committees/supranational-anatomical-projects-ficsap/). Unfortunately, Covid intervened and anatomists around the world were subject to varying degrees of “lockdown” and involved in moving teaching online and supporting students whose teaching and learning had been disrupted. This has slowed down the progress of the planned work.

Survey

In the second half of 2021 a survey was undertaken in collaboration with FIPAE was circulated to all anatomists. The aim of the survey was to investigate what support anatomists at differing stages in their career would find helpful. The survey built on the findings of Kramer et al 2020 who explored the challenges that early career anatomists face. As well as collecting demographic data, the FICSAP related questions focused on what support anatomists at differing stages of their career had found useful in the past and which areas they would like support in the future. Following ethics approval, the Qualtrics survey was distributed via the IFAA member societies, Plexus and via the IFAA website.  The survey was conducted in English, but the Chinese Society of Anatomical Sciences kindly offered to translate the FICSAP/FIPAE survey into Mandarin and circulate it to its members at the end of 2021. While the Chinese survey looked at the views of all anatomists as a single group, in the main survey the data were analysed by stage of career: early, mid and senior.

The findings of both surveys were presented at a FICSAP symposium at the IFAA Congress in Istanbul in 2022 and a manuscript is being finalised for publication. Briefly, the Chinese survey received 296 responses and the main survey 406 complete responses. While in the Chinese survey most anatomists felt supported in their career. In the main survey the results varied with the stage of career, with 71% of senior anatomists reporting they had sufficient support compared with only 42% of early career anatomists. In both surveys the activities that had been most helpful in the past were: mentorship, attending conferences, and workshops and training courses. All anatomists, regardless of stage of career, sought more opportunities to network and collaborate with international anatomists for both teaching and research, and training in virtual delivery of anatomy. For the early career group this was followed closely by training for education delivery, training research methods and skills, and funding for conferences. The survey reinforced the need for a programme to support early career anatomists.

It had been hoped to hold face to face focus groups at anatomy conferences to supplement the survey data but this proved difficult due to the lack of in person events during the pandemic. A virtual focus group was held at the last IFAA Congress and the findings supported the data from the survey. The findings of the survey have informed the webinars that have been held by PEAP and FIPAE.

Collaboration with Flinders University and FIPAE

Following the IFAA meeting in 2022, Prof Kramer was approached by Prof Goran Strkalj about a programme they were using at Flinders University, Australia which might be helpful in supporting anatomists interested in educational research. After discussion with FIPAE and the Executive of the IFAA it was agreed to run a pilot programme for up to 6 early career anatomists based in Africa. The partnership involved colleagues from Flinders providing online interactive workshops and members of FICSAP and FIPAE providing mentoring of the anatomists and the evaluation of the programme.  

The project aimed to provide an opportunity to:

• Enhance anatomy educators’ capacity to undertake educational research specific to their discipline
• Establish a collaboration among health professions educators and researchers at Flinders and IFAA
• Identify and disseminate insights about an international faculty development collaboration.

The programme involved 3 workshops: 1) Getting started in researching learning and teaching; 2) Engaging with the health professions education literature; 3) Designing your study including ethical considerations. After each workshop each candidate had a one-on-one session with their mentor.

Following ethical approval for the project, it was publicised through the various African Anatomy societies and expressions of interest were sought. Eleven strong applications were received and after deliberation the selection panel invited 6 applicants to take part, all agreed. The pilot programme began in July 2023 and ran over the next 6 months with each of the candidates submitting a research proposal in 2024. Evaluation of the programme is currently in progress. If the evaluation is positive, we will explore continuing the programme with a wider audience.

President’s Emergent Anatomist Programme (PEAP)

The IFAA President’s Emergent Anatomist Programme was initiated by Prof Beverley Kramer and launched at the 2019 IFAA Congress, London and has been led by Dr Carol Hartmann and Prof Jose Sanudo. The Programme aims to support the development of emergent anatomists by facilitating opportunities and programmes to develop their skills and expertise as they grow their professional networks and identities. Over the last 5 years PEAP has held a variety of workshops to support emerging anatomists. Due to Covid these workshops have mainly been virtual but an in person event “Bridging generations of anatomists” is planned for this Congress.

Virtual workshops

April 2020       Scientific Writing

April 2021       Scientific Writing

July 2021         Mentoring

April 2022       The future of anatomical sciences

August 2022   Establishing a professional profile

February 2023 What support anatomists need to develop their careers

February 2023 Writing an abstract

April 2023       Women in Science

April 2023       Scientific poster presentation

June 2023       Social media & scientific communication

August 2023   Is the future of anatomy virtual

Sept 2023       Micro-computed tomography in morphological research

October 2023 Virtual histology through diffusion-weighted advanced MRI

March 2024    Medical and Biomedical imaging with AI-related approaches

April 2024       Women in Science

May 2024        Ethical considerations around anatomical images

June 2024       Artificial intelligence for research tasks

Dr Carol Hartmann and Professor Jose Sanudo will be stepping down as chairs of PEAP at the General Assembly and I would like to sincerely thank them for their outstanding and important work they have done to provide support for emergent anatomists across the world.

Helen Nicholson, on behalf of the FICSAP Committee September 2024