By Marj O’Neill ’21, Staff Writer

The physical therapy department recently announced that the cadaver lab will be moved to online this summer. 

Cadaver lab is a hands-on human anatomy dissection lab part of the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at LVC that takes place over the course of several weeks the summer before fourth year students begin graduate courses.  

In compliance with Governor Wolfe’s declaration that secondary schools remain closed until the end of August, the College made the decision to move all Summer I sessions online and there is no guarantee that the campus will be open in Summer II session. This means the cadaver lab will now be an online summer course. 

The safety of the students, social distancing and the reality that if the coursework was not completed this summer that graduation could be delayed was all taken into thoughtful consideration to make this decision. When concern was expressed by physical therapy students about how online cadaver will affect their learning of future physical therapy courses at LVC, Dr. Michael Fink, chair and associate professor of physical therapy, reassured them that it shouldn’t be a major issue.  

“There is no definitive research that shows that learning anatomy by way of cadaver dissection is superior to learning via web-based program,” Fink said. “Many PT programs do not use cadaver in their education. Actually, more and more programs are moving away from cadavers due to cost, space needed, onsite requirement, and medical waste removal implications.” 

When making this decision, the physical therapy department considered moving the lab to another time, however, the fall semester for the fourth year in the program has no room for it given the other coursework and the anatomy knowledge needed for those courses.  

“We are planning to embed cadaver dissection into some fall courses or hold it as a stand-alone module at the end of the fall semester and\or over winter break to embed some hands-on dissection, but there are no logistical issues we will have to navigate given the College closure during winter break,” Fink said. “I do not see this as no longer getting the ‘full experience’, but rather a ‘different’ experience. Actually, our students may get the best of both worlds with this new design…virtual 3D imaging (including augmented reality software function), as well as a live hands-on dissection module. We may find that moving forward that we add the virtual online learning format to the existing course format.” 

There will be immediate cost savings for students, as they will no longer need to buy personal protective gear (gloves, goggles, masks, shoe covers, etc.) which are in short supply anyway due to COVID-19. Additionally, the lab dissector manual fee will be waived for students because the department is getting the Visible Body program for free until June 30.  

“The course will still be 5 credits,” Fink said. “The amount of lecture time will not change.” 

Although this is devastating for many current third-year physical therapy students, for Becca Clouser, there is hope for perseverance.  

“Obviously, I would rather have it in person, but considering the circumstances, I think the college made the right decision,” Becca Clouser, a third-year physical therapy student, said. “I have confidence that my class will still be able to persevere through cadaver online and be prepared for next semester.” 

Due to the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education’s extra latitude to physical therapy programs in how students are educated, the accreditation and qualification of the program will not be affected, and students will be kept safe and progress forward through the curriculum.