Rethinking Human Anatomy Teaching: From Dissection to Digital Innovation and Beyond

Human anatomy teaching is undergoing a rapid transformation driven by digital innovation, immersive visualization, open multiscale datasets, and changing learner profiles, while donor-based dissection nevertheless remains essential for understanding human anatomical variability and tissue properties and may contribute to students’ professional identity formation when supported by structured reflection. In this narrative review, we synthesize peer-reviewed literature, prioritizing contributions most relevant to current educational practice and governance. We discuss how technology-enhanced resources can extend learning before, during, and after laboratory sessions through manipulable visualization, repetition, and tighter links to imaging and data literacy. We also examine the expanding clinical, research, and innovation roles of donor-based anatomy laboratories and the associated need for explicit governance (biosafety, access control, documentation, and transparency regarding secondary uses). Ethical literacy is treated as a core learning outcome, including inclusive representation, consent and donation law awareness, and critical engagement with plastination and public display. Finally, we consider how attention fragmentation and AI-enabled tools may support personalization and feedback, yet also introduce risks such as automation bias and superficial recognition if not paired with verification and reasoning-based tasks. Overall, the future of human anatomy education lies in purposeful integration of donor-based, digital, immersive, and computational modalities within an adaptive learning ecosystem that serves learners across disciplines while maintaining robust ethical and professional standards.