Internationalization of Medical Education: Collaborations Initiated through the American Association of Anatomists (AAA) and the Anatomical Society (AS) Meetings Lead to Successful International Educational Partnerships

Background International collaborations are very important for successful internationalization of medical education (IoME) projects. We have previously reported our experience in IoME within the Anatomy course, using international small group peer-to-peer and student exchanges. In this follow-up study we have expanded our project to include more countries, along with making changes to the international conference. We now include two partner schools that became involved through connections initiated at the AAA 2016 meeting and the AS meeting in 2017. Method Preclinical Anatomy students (medical and dental) from 6 different countries participated in 5 video conferencing sessions, including one large international student videoconference. The above was followed by international student exchanges - involving basic sciences summer internships. Partner countries/schools included the USA (Columbia University, New York), Germany (Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg), Japan (Kyoto University, Kyoto), Canada...