Anatomy in Oman: Can we transplant a curriculum?

About six years ago West Virginia University Health Sciences Center agreed to assist with development and start‐up operation of the new Oman Medical College in the Sultanate of Oman. A private school, it was created with government encouragement to increase output of Omani physicians. We are involved as faculty in planning and implementing some of the Medical School’s first preclinical experiences (Human Structure and Neurobiology). The initial intention was to “export” our WVU preclinical curriculum intact, to provide Omani students with a “Western” medical education. Pre‐medical students with three years of intensive English and science courses began medical school in the 2004–’05 academic year; we are now in our second year of service as visiting faculty (1–2 month terms) while permanent faculty are recruited and trained. One key to curricular “transplantation” was transfer of our in‐house IT delivery system (SOLE) to Oman, where students with (required) laptops and wireless access can use appropriate curricular materials generated for our WVU courses. OMC is well equipped for lectures and small group activities, has adequate IT support but is deficient in lab facilities. Restructuring gross anatomy instruction with much reduced hands‐on lab work has been a major challenge, particularly as we are integrating new faculty and are only present for brief time periods. Creating effective instruction across substantial barriers of language, culture and distance has proven to be a stimulating challenge. This report will summarize approaches, preliminary results and complications of our initial efforts.