Your unit coordinator for this unit, Relational Anatomy and Image Recognition (MEDS11002), is Dr Michelle Fenech.  Dr Fenech is based at the Brisbane campus.  The best way to contact her is via email: m.fenech@cqu.edu.au.  Dr Fenech will send you out emails at the start of each week, to update you on what we are covering for the week, and what learning activities are occurring, so please check your emails regularly.  Questions regarding the unit can be placed in the Q and A forum, where all students can benefit from your question and the subsequent answer. 

This unit is a 12-credit-point unit, and it covers the structural anatomy of the whole body, and how the anatomical structures can be represented and identified on medical images which includes x-rays (plain radiographs), computed tomography (CT), including positron emission tomography CT (PETCT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound imaging.  As there is a lot to cover in this unit, the approach to learning has been specifically designed.  There are pre-recorded lectures available to you each week (these are available at least the week before the scheduled learning week).  These cover a lot of content but place your learning into context.  Do not get overwhelmed by these lectures.  They contain a lot of information, and you are not expected to know everything covered in these lectures.  They should be watched (without note taking) prior to attending the tutorials and study groups.

The pertinent content relevant to your future role as a sonographer and part of a medical imaging team, will be unpacked in live and interactive online tutorials and study groups offered each week.  These tutorials and study groups are delivered via Zoom each week, except week 9.  The tutorials and study groups relate to the learning allocated that week in the schedule.   Your learning will be best achieved by attending these tutorials and study groups (or watching the recordings if you cannot attend live) and being guided by what is covered and discussed in these tutorials/study groups and adopting the systematic approach to remembering anatomy, and where structures sit relative to others, and identifying structures from medical images.  This is all outlined clearly and simply in these sessions.

It is very important for you to try to keep up to date week by week with the learning in this unit.  Regular engagement with the learning activities provided is essential to allow yourself to keep up and achieve success in this unit.  If you are encountering any sort of issues throughout the term, please contact Dr Fenech as early as possible, so we can establish a plan to support and help you.

There are additional resources available to help your learning and enhance your learning experience in this unit.  This includes:

1. Access to 'Complete Anatomy' by Elsevier.  This excellent resource allows you to rotate anatomy structures around, peel off layers of structures, and practice identifying them, with instant feedback to see if your thinking is correct.  

2. Formative online quizzes, which can help you check your knowledge, and identify gaps in your understanding,

3. Medical images and diagrams to label (called images to label), which allow you to practice identifying structures from medical images and check your knowledge,

4. Guides to build play-dough models of anatomy, to make learning more tactile, 

5. Peer Assisted Study Sessions (called PASS), where sonography students of higher year levels in the course, that have successfully completed this unit, facilitate sessions.  These are a great way to learn, and discuss anatomy with your peers, as learning anatomy can be like learning a new language.  In these sessions you can go through the 'images to label' and play with 'Complete Anatomy' with others, to further develop your three-dimensional (3D) understanding of anatomy.

It is important to be familiar with the timing of assessments in this unit:  

1. week 4 - Online quiz 1 (pelvis anatomy)

2. week 6 - Online quiz 2 (abdominal anatomy)

3. week 9 - Week 9 Online test (tests weeks 1 - 7)

4. week 13 - End of term online test (tests all content)

The non-compulsory residential school is held on the Tuesday in week 9.  You are required to attend your campus of enrolment.  It will run from 8:30 am to 3 pm.  You will have the opportunity to use the ultrasound units to obtain imaging of anatomy models.  We may scan each other for certain components of the day.  There is no assessment associated with the residential school, however it does help things start to make sense, when you see the ultrasound images in real time, and can see the ultrasound image moving, and how it changes when you move the ultrasound transducer.  It is intended to be a fun, non-intimidating learning experience for you.  It is usually around week 9, when your understanding of the anatomy we have covered in different areas of the body really develops.