When anatomy lecturer Siobahn Moyes struggled to find high-quality diverse anatomy models on the market, she did something about it. “Post lockdown and after the international campaign for Black Lives Matter, noticing the lack of diversity in our anatomy resources was a real shock for me,” said Moyes, a faculty member at England’s University of Plymouth Peninsula Medical School. “Ultimately our students are going to treat people from all backgrounds and ethnicities, so why were our teaching materials primarily Euro-centric? I was also upset to think that our diverse population of students might not feel represented by the models they saw in our teaching.”

Moyes approached model maker, Adam,Rouilly to discuss improvements to the visibility and availability of models with different skin tones. The result? A line of anatomical models with darker colored skin tones, which are now being used throughout the university’s medical and dental programs. “They have been so receptive and collaborative through the whole process, it’s been a real team effort,” Moyes said. Funding for the new anatomical models was made possible in part by an Athena Swan Silver award.  

Read “New models improve diversity of medical teaching materials” by the University of Plymouth.