Passing Knowledge Beyond the Boundary of Life: The Great Body Teacher Programme of Hong Kong

Abstract

<p>The Body Donation Programme of the University of Hong Kong, ‘The Great Body Teacher Programme’, was established in 2012. In the early years, the Faculty of Medicine relied heavily on unclaimed bodies for medical education. This trend has changed significantly after we introduced The Great Body Teacher Programme in 2012. Currently, the majority of the cadavers used in teaching are from the bodies donated through the programme.<br>Thanks to the generous contribution of the public, the mean of new registrants for body donation is 768.7±193.5 annually. The current total number of registrants is 8705, 0.117% of the 7.4 million Hong Kong population. The number of donated bodies received is now approaching 90 per year, comparing to merely 13 in 2012.<br>Approximately 40 donated bodies per year are used for dissection education in undergraduate medical curriculum. The rest are used for training workshops for junior surgeons of different specialties, as well as clinical research.<br>The Great Body Teacher Programme has become the largest out-reaching platform for anatomical sciences in Hong Kong. We collaborate with local communities, NGOs, religious groups, and government for promoting health sciences and human anatomy. We have designated 3rd of March as the Body Donation Day, and organized variety of knowledge exchange activities in the week of body donation day annually, such as human-body-inspired concert, premiere for body donation movie, body shape painting and reflection, discussion forums for life and death, as well as anatomical education expo.<br>The Great Body Teacher Programme grants medical students, scientists, and clinicians the irreplaceable authentic learning opportunities for human anatomy. It is an essential component for medical humanity and professionalism training. Furthermore, it promotes the public awareness of health and disease, and disseminates the knowledge about human body in Hong Kong.<br>Ethics approved by Human Research Ethics Committee, HKU, Ref: EA210204.</p>