The Golden Scapula Competition

9.06.2016

Anatomy is a tough case. Some people consider it easy, others see it as very complex. For some, anatomy is a fascination, for other people it is more of a punishment. Certainly it is not one of those courses that leave us indifferent. This is why each year the Interacademic Competition of Anatomical Knowledge “Złota Łopatka” – “Golden Scapula” stirs up such strong emotions. The Competition has been held for many years now for Polish- and English-language course students who presented top level skills in anatomy. This year, following the decision of the Presidium of Polish Association of Anatomy, the competition was held on 3rd through 4th of June at the Department of Anatomy Wroclaw Medical University. Even though the participants were hampered by a sudden heat wave, they gallantly passed all three parts of the competition (a threoretical session followed by two practical ones). During the theory-related part, the students were treated to a 100-part test covering gross anatomy, clinical anatomy and neuroanatomy. Some of the questions were strikingly non-standard as they focused on non-medical knowledge, such as the details from “Doctor Tulp’s Anatomy Lesson”, a famous painting by Rembrandt. Later on, the participants were asked to identify anatomical detains on equally untypical section preparations. The final part presented an “anatomy disco”: the participants had to recognize 40 different structures on X-ray plates.

Even so, one may safely conclude that such complex tasks are safe in the hands of students from Medical University of Gdansk. As was the case a year ago, this June our students, participating among groups from 11 different Universities, gave an excellent performance. The English-language group, consisting of Fabienne Nicole Baumann, Charlene Marie Mueller, David Raman and Oskar Guzman, took the second prize, just after the native team from Wroclaw. In addition, our Polish-language team formed by Małgorzata Nowosielska, Weronika Spodnik, Jan Kudyk and Tobiasz Sławiński placed in the fourth position (having landed just two points shy of the bronze medal-winning position). The competition’s organizers took the first place in this classification as well.

Another reason to be proud of was the excellent individual performance by David Raman, who finished in the second position overall, while Fabienne Nicole Baumann scored the fourth place in the same individual competition.

A heartfelt congratulations to all MUG representation and their tutor dr Jan Spodnik from Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology.