Medical school running out of cadaver room
UNE announces plans to build new anatomy lab
Publication: Portland Press Herald
By Larry David Hansen
Staff Writer
BIDDEFORD – The University of New England has the largest number of cadavers north of Harvard, but not enough room for all those who want to use them. To relieve the problem, it plans to construct a $1.5 million medical science building to house an anatomy lab.
The current anatomy lab, the only cadaver lab in the state used for education, is in great demand by students, doctors and aspiring surgeons from around New England, according to UNE president Charles Ford. The lab at UNE’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, containing about 45 cadavers, is being used more than school administrators ever expected.
“The use is increasing at almost a frightening rate,” said Dr. Neil Cross, associate professor of anatomy.
This spring, architects will develop preliminary plans for a new medical science building that will include a cadaver lab, classrooms and faculty offices. Currently, UNE’s cadaver lab is at “full capacity,” said Ford.
“We learn from our dead, basically,” Ford said about the cadaver lab. “But we’re unable to expand our teaching.”
The lab’s capacity problem has a statewide effect, because there is no other cadaver lab in Maine where dissection is done for learning purposes, said Donna Libbey, a Maine coordinator for the New England Eye Bank. The closest cadaver lab like UNE’s is at Harvard University, said Cross.
Recently, the UNE’s cadaver lab has had to turn away physicians from around New England who want to practice their surgical technique, and students from around the country who want to enroll in UNE’s four-year medical program. And Ford said the medical program has refused to accept grants because the lab doesn’t have room for additional research projects.
Over the years, the cadaver lab has become an integral part of the medical education at UNE. The 305 students at the medical school use the anatomy course in the lab to acquaint themselves with the human body before they become physicians, said Frank Paul, 30, a third-year student from Fullerton, Calif.
“I’d be scared to death to have a doctor work on me who has never seen a cadaver before,” Paul said.
The cadaver lab is a sterile-looking room located in the Stella Maris Hall, the building that houses administrative offices. The first-floor lab, locked at all times, contains 20 stainless steel tables, spaced evenly apart, on which the cadavers are placed.
The lab’s major function is the one-semester anatomy lab for first-year students. Every fall, 80 anatomy students spend about 40 hours each week in the lab either during class-time or researching on their own, said Cross. Cadavers, embalmed with propylene glycol, remain on the tables the entire semester, said Cross.
The anatomy class – a student’s introduction to the osteopathic program – is difficult to adjust to for some, said Paul, who had never seen a cadaver before his experience here.
“We’re all used to being around the living,” he said. “When you walk into a room of 20 dead people, it’s a bit different. It’s spooky.”
Third-year student Lisa Brochu, 26, said she overcame the initial trauma of working with cadavers by “realizing these people donate their bodies for us to help others in the future.”
Though most of the cadavers come through a national donor program, about 60 percent are instate cadavers donated to the program. Cross said the average age of the cadavers is 70-75 years old, while the youngest was a 26-year-old. Cadavers are immediately brought to UNE after death, where they are embalmed by anatomy professors.
When the anatomy class ends, the cadavers are cremated and the ashes buried in a vault on campus. The replacement cadavers are stored in a room, cooled to about 37 degrees, located next to the lab.
Community use of the lab has rising dramatically in recent years, said Cross. When possible, UNE lets the community use the lab free of charge. For instance:
• Dental hygienists from Westbrook College in Portland use the lab to better understand the head, neck and facial muscles, said Kimberly Cameron, a Westbrook instructor.
• Libbey of the New England Eye Bank said Portland-area ophthalmology students studying to become certified surgical technologists use the lab to understand the anatomy of the eye.
• Physicians such as Dr. Tarek Elgabri of the Cranston General Hospital in Cranston, R.I., have used the lab to study new types of operations they plan to incorporate into their practices.
This summer, UNE plans to offer a new summer school course for osteopathic students who need extra help in anatomy. Cross, who believes the summer program will be the only one of its kind in the country, said students from around the country will participate in the course.
But this may be the only new course in the lab, at least until UNE provides more space for anatomy students, said Ford. He said the school has already accepted a $50,000 private donation for the construction project.
Once new facilities are built, Ford hopes to start “innovative” programs in the cadaver lab, such as summer classes for high school biology teachers and workshops for high school students interested in careers in medicine.