Section 2 -

Modern Pathology Museums: Surviving and Thriving Denis Wakefield Dept Pathology, School of Medical Sciences UNSW, Sydney Australia

Click here to download handout in pdf format for the current section (576 KB) Pathology Museums are under threat for a number of reasons. There have been dramatic changes in medical education over the past decade which have put pressure on Medical school and university administrators to maintain Pathology museums. Museums are often to seen to be expensive facilities that do not have a well defined role in the modern medical curriculum. This pressure on museum survival has been exacerbated by decreasing funding for medical education in a number of countries, particularly in Australia, together with an increasing trend towards the dispersement of medical students to gain clinical experience in teaching hospitals remote from the central medical school. The acquisition of pathology specimens suitable for presentation and display has become more difficult, mainly due to changes in legislation and social attitudes. This has occurred at a time when there has been an enormous decrease in the autopsy rate in most teaching hospitals. Autopsies were previously the major source of tissue specimens for Pathology museums. These recent trends, coupled with changes in surgical technique, such as laproscopic surgery has had a dramatic effect on the availability of surgical specimens. Faced with these difficulties Medical Museums have had to change in order to survive. The traditional role of the museum in teaching, facilitating research and education has changed and museums that have survived and thrived have had to reinvent themselves to accommodate the changes in the environment in which they operate. The Pathology Museum at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has used a number of strategies to overcome these problems. These include diversification of activities, increased community involvement, high school student education and special thematic exhibitions. As a result of implementation of these survival strategies, the Museum at UNSW has continued to grow and flourish.