 So 78 organs, 206 bones, 600 muscles, over 4,000 tendons, and countless numbers of arteries, veins, and nerves that you have to remember. In this video, we are going to break down the best resources to learn anatomy. Let's get into it. All right, guys, welcome back to channel. In case you're new here, my name is Lex, I'm an internal medicine physician. And here at the MD journey, I make videos like this one to help you succeed on your medical journey, but doing it with less stress. Now, I know for me, one of the most unique classes and stressful classes that I had in med school was anatomy. And that's just because it's brand new language. Most of us haven't taken a class or learned about the topic enough. So in this video, I'm going to break down some of the best resources that I use as a medical student. And some of that kind of came to my attention afterwards that you really need to know about. And after you watch this video and understand exactly which resource is going to be the best for you, I also recommend you watch this video and it basically tells you exactly how to study for anatomy step by step, as well as this video right here, when I was an anatomy TA as a fourth year med student, basically told you how to prepare for exams. Both of these videos are going to be super helpful. And to best help you understand, okay, that's the resource for me, each resource I want to be breaking down in three criteria. One's going to be priced because let's be real money's important. One's going to be on how easy and effective it is to use the resource as a busy med student. And the last criteria is probably the most important, which is how well can you remember information not only for the short term, like your quizzes and your tests, but long term when you're a physician like myself. So with that being said, let's get into resource number one, which is anatomy zone. Now anatomy zone was the resource that probably saved my butt when I was in medical school, because it basically allowed me as a visual learner to really have everything that I needed, both before lab as well as lecture. And the way anatomy zone and their lectures work, it's basically giving you this 3d Atlas and kind of breaking down the different aspects of it. And so you can kind of get a mental model, which I talk about in my how to study video, which is as important for you to kind of have a mental model before you go into dissections to say, okay, these are what I expect to see and the relationships between the various structures. And so my personal strategy for anatomy zone was to watch the relevant video the day before lecture and then go to the dissection with the understanding of where things roughly should be organized and then comparing it to what I thought would actually be existing to what extra to the human body look like. And then coming back to these videos and really getting a final refresher of saying, okay, now I've seen it on a human cadaver or I've seen it in lecture, this is really what makes sense. And so if you're a visual learner like myself, these videos are amazing. But if you're somebody who likes to read the text, and they also have transcriptions of everything that goes into the video, so you can easily review. And the other thing I really like about anatomy zone is that not only do they have videos for basically everything, but they also break it down for the skeletal system, the musculosystem, and then the arteries and the nerves. You can really understand small minutiae and details without having to learn everything at one time. So for example, if you're struggling with the various different arteries and circulations of the upper extremity, you can just watch this video. If you're just struggling with the muscles and the arms or your very intrinsic, especially the hands, you can watch that video. And then again, you can go into that section and have the whole picture put together. So like I mentioned, anatomy zone was definitely one of my go to resources when I was a brand new medical student. In terms of our three criteria is when you go into price, can't get better than freeze a 10 out of 10 there. In terms of effectiveness, it's very easy to use and navigate around their website and find the relevant video that you need. So it gets a nine out of 10 there. And then finally, in terms of how effective it is for you to learn information longterm, there it gets a seven out of 10 for me, just because it's missing those last components where you can quiz yourself, have flashcards and other types of resources. Now granted, this is a free resource. So obviously very grateful, but simply watching the videos, you may not be able to remember information longterm, having some kind of quiz or question bank or flashcards really would be what the anatomy zone is missing. But for a free resource, I totally recommend it. Definitely recommend you guys check it out and the link will be down below. Now resource number two that I'm super excited to share with you guys is Kenhub. Now this was actually a resource that I had no awareness of when I was a brand new medical student. It's actually brought to my attention by one of my subscribers. So thank you. And when I saw this resource, I knew I had to share it to you guys for the purpose of this video. And if you were like me and you're not familiar with Kenhub, basically is an all in one resource for everything you need to learn anatomy. When I mean everything, I mean everything. And with both an available free as well as a premium version, the premium version has over a hundred hours of videos, hundreds of practice questions, and so much more. And to best give you an idea of everything Kenhub has to offer, we're just going to take an inside look. So I've created my own account for the empty journey. Now if you imagine that you're going into dissection the next day, you can essentially look up any structure or topic you want to learn about, whether it be something very broad. But since we were learning about the brachial plexus in our last example, let's just go there and we can go to our brachial plexus video. Now really what makes Kenhub super unique is everything you learned is learned as a learning unit. So not only do you have like a video, for example, to learn information, but they also kind of augment and supplement everything. So you can have that long return retention, which is super important. So in this example for the brachial plexus as we go down, we have the text as well as the most important video on the brachial plexus. And I've gone through a few of these videos and I found them to be very engaging, as well as doing a really great job of breaking something that's very complex like the brachial plexus and very step by step and easy to understand manner. And they also have some of my favorite subtle features of videos, which include closed captions. If I'm watching this and I can't use my audio like I'm in, you know, a public place, for example, then I can just read this. In addition to closed captions, the videos themselves have some features that are pretty close to my heart, including the ability to speed up your video. So you can watch that 2x, which is something I'm a huge fan of doing, as well as these cool kind of jumblings down below. So if there's parts of the videos that you just want to go to, and you just want to learn about the divisions of the brachial plexus or other branches, then you can kind of go to those parts of the videos. In addition to actually watching the video, if you're somebody who enjoys reading the text, or if you're in a public place and just don't have the luxury of actually putting the audio on to have your headphones, you can actually read the text and follow along with the video and the closed captions, which is a really cool feature, but it's kind of nice to hit in a way so it's not too bulky. But like I mentioned earlier in the video, what really makes Kenhub unique is not just the videos itself or the addition of texts like other resources, but they also have other supplementary ways for you to learn stuff, depending on your learning style. So here, for example, as we can see in the brachial plexus videos, we also have an additional video that is really kind of designed to help you learn brachial plexus through a mnemonic and interesting images. And again, you have the jump links down below. This is a really short video. It's only four minutes. So if you're struggling on learning brachial plexus and you don't have time to watch the 20 minute video, you can go to this one first and then go into your dissection lab and then come back to the main video when you have time. And probably my favorite part about the learning units is every video and learning unit in Kenhub that I found so far has a quiz. And the nice thing about the quiz is that it's not just questions related to the topic, but you can also stratify it based off of how well you know the information. So a great example is if you're going into a brand new dissection the next day, you haven't really seen it on cadaver, haven't seen it in lecture, but you've managed to watch the video on Kenhub, you can then go into the basic ID section. And this is super useful when you're trying to create a mental model of what things are. So very simple questions like which one is the brachial plexus? Let's see if my doctor still remembers some of these answers, but really straightforward kind of answer and questions. Just make sure that I can go into lab the next day and really kind of know roughly where things should be and how they're related in the various parts of the brachial plexus. And like I mentioned, what really makes your quizzes unique is yes, you have the basic ID quizzes if you're brand new to a topic, but if you learn something, maybe you can come back and you can do the advanced identification or if you're getting closer to a quiz or exam. And this is my favorite kind of style of questions. They have question bangs, which are basically multiple choice styles. You can really prepare for your upcoming assessments. Now Kenhub could have stopped there and I would have really already by itself made it a great resource, but there's a little additional stuff that I added at the very bottom, which I really am kind of a nerd about, which is one, they have the Atlas where you can kind of see everything at one time. And for me, as being a visual learner, it's really nice to kind of be able to parse things individually, but also just kind of see it in one individual place. And then if I wanted to practice kind of the entire brachial plexus, I could kind of see the different parts again that are relevant to their videos that are the same as our quizzes and saying like, do I know if that's the middle trunk or not? Can I tell you essentially that that is the musculoskeletal is a nerve. And then if I go down and I really want to say, okay, like which one was actually a nerve? I can't remember. I can just click and I boom, there it is. So really just the combination of the entire learning unit with the videos, the questions, the quizzes and the atlases as well as like the individual ID component just makes Kenhub a really nice put together resource to just make anatomy super useful regardless of what type of learning style you have. And to just show off a few other features of Kenhub itself, you can go into the custom quiz section. So if you have an upcoming test or quiz coming around, you can essentially filter by whatever blocks or dissections you're learning about. So if we're doing that for limb in the setting of the brachial plexus, then you can click the bones and the muscles that you've essentially done the arteries and then click down here to go to quick quiz. And just like before, you have the various options of the different quizzing styles, you can do the basic ID. But because we're getting closer to an exam, we're just going to do the exam question question being kind of style questions just to see what it looks like. So in this example, for instance, we have an age of a patient at 55 year old with shoulder pain. And basically after reading through it, you have to ask which kind of muscle is involved, which is a very relevant style of question for again, board exams, as well as your own school quizzes and tests. Now the features that we've already talked about really already separate Kenhub from the rest of the pack when it comes to anatomy. But there's a few things that I found that I got just got super nerdy about as I was going through the website and knew I had to share with you guys. One thing, for example, is histology. Like I don't know about you guys, but when I was a med student, this was like the class I absolutely hated because couldn't find a resource that I actually could learn from. And it just wasn't that interesting, but I couldn't learn everything at one place. But just like the rest of their information, they teach histology with learning units, which I just thought was super, super cool. So for example, we go to connective tissue, we can go to dense connective tissue, and they have just like the brachial plexus example that we've already set out. And so when we get into the learning unit, just like the brachial plexus example that we've already seen, they have a learning unit on the dense connective tissue, which includes the videos and all the various other features have their own quizzes. But the part specifically that makes histology super effective is if you go into the Atlas, they give you various different types of examples in this setting of dense connective tissue, which I personally didn't have in a lot of quizzes and tests for med school classes specifically around histology is around ID. So if you can get examples, you can understand the subtle nuances between the different types of connected tissue and epithelium. And again, I just didn't have that one as a med student. And if I did, this would be super, super clutch. There's tons of different examples of just knowing what like a plasma cell looks like. This is like bringing back both good and bad memories as I look at this. But if I knew about this made game over for me and histology when I was studying as a brand new med student. And learning histology wasn't a good enough bonus by itself. They also freaking have a radiology section. Again, this is something that makes total sense. You should know radiology when you're learning about anatomy. But to be quite honest, I didn't learn radiology until I was like a full-time physician. I just had to look at enough x-rays, for example, just because my patients had them and I had to read them on my own. But if you're a brand new med student, be a super effective tool to know the various parts of x-rays and what different structures are where. So you can again, use their learning unit for like a PA x-ray, which is like your most important style. And just know what different things are altogether. But then also try to see, can I identify this as the rib? Can I identify this as like the cardiac silhouette or the heart? Do I know that that's the trachea? And again, if you're like, oh, I'm not really sure where the border of the left atrium would be, then boom. And then you should know that for future kind of examples. And they also have practice questions in a custom quiz for individual x-rays. So hopefully you guys are starting to see both my inner nerd come out just because resources like this just make me geek out. But also a little bit of my jealousy, just because I wish I was aware of Kenhub when I was studying for anatomy as a brand new med student. And so if we get into price, yes, they have a free version. But to really take advantage of all the features I shared with you, I do recommend their premium version for either a month. As I'm making this video, it's $39 a month. But really the package I would personally pick is their three month package for $75. It doesn't because anatomy is typically like a semester or half semester course. And so if you ask me for 75 bucks, if you really wanted all the resource for anatomy in one place, would you take it? I would take it without any doubt or hesitation. So in terms of price and for all you get, I'd consider it to be pretty fair and it gets a nine out of 10 for me. In terms of effectiveness to use, you can be really any type of learner, whether it's somebody who likes to read or watch videos or practice with questions. And really Kenhub has something made for you. And so there it also gets a nine out of 10. And then last but not least, if we talk about effectiveness to really remember information long-term, I really Kenhub has something for you depending on where you are on your learning trajectory. So if you're really early on, you're learning about information for the first time, the basic ID question bank style questions is super effective. And if you're getting closer to exam, the multiple choice style question that we had is also very effective. There's really one thing that'd be missing. It's kind of an individual area. We can just do flashcards, like, you know, your individual question. In fact, which some of their question banks you could argue are. And that would really, for me, be the only thing that's missing and being a little nitpicky, but really regardless of what type of learning style you have, Kenhub does a great job of helping you remember information for the long-term. So there it also gets a nine out of 10 for me. Now I was very excited and thankful for the subscriber who brought Kenhub to my attention because after I saw all the features they had to offer, I reached out to their team and they were gracious enough to one offer an additional 10% off. And that'll be linked down below for you guys that are interested. And they're also gracious enough to support this video and this channel by being today's sponsor. So thank you Kenhub so much for the support. And again, guys, if you really want to check out all the various features Kenhub has to offer you to really help dominate and anatomy, the additional 10% link that is exclusive to our subscribers will be linked down below. So definitely check it out. Now resource number three to really dominate anatomy are pre-made Anki decks. Now the nice thing about anatomy is that the information doesn't really change. So the best way for you to learn it is to use the efforts that other people have done to really put the information in a very nice, easy way. And I was personally a huge fan of Anki. Now for my own institution, we had our own dissection guide and so people made Anki cards from those from past years. And I just use that. But if you don't really have that, then there are a few anatomy decks on pre-made decks will be linked down below if you guys are interested. And if you want a full kind of Anki deck collection of everything from medical school, definitely check out the domination bundle down below. What does just an added bonus that's included in the bundle. But in this example, I just want to show you the various different types of anatomy decks that I was able to find. And so here we're just going to click on one of them. And they're going to give you various kind of examples of real cadavers. And then saying, like, do I know what number one is? Hopefully that is the gold ladder. Look at that. I still know my anatomy. And you can go to the various different parts. And this is great for, you know, types of quizzes that involve both identification on cadavers as well as things like here, like being able to identify things on radiology. So do I know that that's a cystic duct on x-ray. And just to show you the various different types of anatomy decks that I've linked down below for you, this is one from the University of Michigan, which we'll actually get back to later in this video. But here we can just practice on things like bones and skeletons, because those are actually also fair game for your anatomy practicals and just making sure that you kind of know the various different parts. And then finally, some of these Anki decks will also focus on specific structures, as well as their functions and what they're connected to. And those are also fair game for your quizzes, your tests, and possibly also even for your practicals. Now out of these Anki decks, there's not really one that I recommend over the other because it may just be per your style of learning as well as the way that you get quizzed on anatomy. So those will be linked down below for you guys to try. But in terms of grading them, obviously they're all free. So price gets a 10 out of 10. In terms of ease to use, I would give most of them an 8 out of 10, because again, it's just, it's hard to navigate when you didn't make the cards. And so you're just kind of hoping that the information you need is there. So there it gets a 8 out of 10, because unless you're going to browse through all their hundreds or thousands of cards that have been made, you're just kind of hoping that you kind of flash through the cards and you get presented the same information you get taught. But an additional kind of pro tip is you can always add your own personal Anki cards to these individual pre-made decks to really kind of make it full and complete. And then finally, for effectiveness long term, I honestly think Anki is probably one of the better tools to remember information long term, just because of the way you use space repetition. And if you guys are interested, you guys can check out our most popular video here on how to use Anki like a pro. Super useful, super effective. But feel free to jump around the very stiff and pre-made decks that we have. And again, if you guys are interested in all the different types of Anki decks that I think that you probably should be aware of in going into medical school, then check out that free bonus that's added onto the Med School Domination Bundle that'll also be linked down below. Now resource number four that I knew was going to get asked about that I want to just include for the purpose of this video are atlases for both your tablets, as well as for your mobile devices. But I'm just going to show you an example from one for my phone. And I don't have one in particular that's like my favorite, and I'll show you why. But this is just one I found on the Google Play Store, and there's going to be various different free as well as paid versions on both Google and iOS. But the nice thing about these atlases is that it gives you, again, a 3D mental model of things to both identify individual things, as well as the inner kind of relationship of these. Now, the reason that they're not like my favorite or haven't been able to find one app better than others is that a lot of times like this one, there's like added bonuses or you eventually have to pay for something, or the ones that are free are a little bit kind of buggy and gimmicky. And the most important part of the atlases is that it puts the information together just like a netters text would, but it doesn't really help you one quiz it or create a good enough mental model until you see the structure and then compare it to what you see on the 3D model. So while an atlas like this is very effective, if you're going to an upcoming dissection, you just want to memorize the different muscles you're going to learn and then learn about the different kind of bones that are there in the structure, that's fine. It just wouldn't be my preferred form of learning or quizzing myself. So in terms of grading, in terms of price, most of these are paid or free, but buggy. So I get it a seven out of 10. In terms of kind of ease to use, a lot of them are intuitive, but each of them have their individual bugs there. It also gets a set out of 10. And in terms of effectiveness for long term use, they're really not designed, some apps are, but they're not really not designed to kind of quiz you or ask you about individual things. So there it gets a six out of 10. So if you're somebody who's going to be relying on atlas, whether it be tech, an app base, or an actual text version, I definitely would recommend it not be your first go to think about some of the resources that we talked about earlier in this video to really kind of hone in on your anatomy knowledge. Now, finally, resource number five, which is probably a golden gem that I found as I was doing research for this video is the blue link through the University of Michigan Medical School. Let me just kind of show you all the features that are there and you'll understand why I dialed as a golden gem. So this is a free website that just basically probably was designed for their medical students initially, and then it's just made public for everybody. But the nice thing is that you can go through any structure that you're about to learn about. So fair warning, you may see some cadaver images. So if you're kind of sensitive, if your images feel free that you're already warned, but let's just say we're going to go into the brachial plexus section. And you can see the various images of some of the bone skeletons. But then as we go further and further down, you'll actually see parts of things that are relevant to the brachial plexus or near the brachial plexus. So here is a great example of how to create a mental model. I was going to go into cadaver lab and I really wanted to know like how everything was related. This is like just amazing to be able to see the different parts of the brachial plexus in a perfect dissection because let's be honest, we never do a perfect dissection as a brand new medical student. You're always tearing nerves. That's like the easiest one, arteries and veins, but to really be able to see it like in the perfect form and say, okay, like that's the heroic, that's what that should look like. So going into lab is so much easier using this kind of resource. And so the nice thing about these images that they're labeled and like we talked about early in this video, if you use the University of Michigan pre-made Ankydex that I'll share down below, then you can essentially get pre-made Ankydex from this website to be able to quiz yourself after you've gone through the respective modules. And some of the additional features that I also found to be super clutched is they just have some practice questions as well as practice practical. So if you're about to have a practical tomorrow and want to be able to best ID things, let's say you're going to do the anterior neck again, fair warning, you may see some cadaver images here, then you may be able to just go down and say, okay, can you identify what foramen that is? Can you identify like the features of the bones that are or what part of the neck we're in? Like is that the anterior, the posterior triangle is a carotid triangle. But these are super, super effective because if you can identify it on a brand new cadaver, this is probably the way you'll be presented for your identification, whether it be virtual or in person. And on a similar boat, they also have practice questions for the various parts of the human body. So let's say we're going to go back to the anterior neck. If you really want to practice your knowledge through the multiple choice kind of style, then boom, you kind of have your ability. And they also have very nice detailed and depth explanations. So you can feel comfortable if you can answer these questions, you probably also do well on your actual exam. So if you guys are interested in learning more about Blue Link, it'll be linked down below. It's absolutely free. So I'm getting into our grading 10 out of 10 in terms of pricing in terms of how easy to use. There's just so much to offer regardless of like if you're learning for a brand new material or if you're trying to review old material. So there it gets a nine out of 10. And then finally, in terms of effectiveness for long term learning, again, it has practice questions. It has an on key cards, which will be linked down below. Just just so many resources also gets eight out of 10. The website is a little bit of clunky and you just want to hope that what you need is there. But for the most part, for a free resource, it just does a lot. So Blue Link will be linked down below in case you guys are interested. But those guys were all the resources that I definitely recommend that you guys know about and definitely check out. Now I know we got into a lot and that's just because anatomy is such an important class, one for you to master long term. And then two, if you master it, then your grades will do better. And I think you just develop this confidence going forward as a brand new medical student. So definitely check out some of these resources. And again, thank you to Kenna for their support and for being the sponsor of today's video. And to be honest, even if they hadn't been today's sponsor out of all the resources that we talked about, some of them being very great, that have probably been the resource that I recommend that you guys all check out. So if you do want to take advantage of that additional 10% link that they're offering, just go ahead and click down below. And regardless of what resource you end up going with, if you did enjoy this video and want to really perfect your approach and learning anatomy, check out this video step by step on how to learn anatomy as well as this video when I was a TA and basically broke down how you should study for anatomy as a test gets closer. And if you're either new to the channel or you've been lurking, consider hitting that subscribe button and notification bell to be aware when new videos go out just like this one. And as always guys, if you have questions, feel free to drop in the comment section. I love interacting with you guys and answering your questions. So make sure you drop them down below. And if you're interested in even learning more about how the MD journey can help you on your medical journey, definitely check out the other videos that we have in the channel, including the ones we recommended, as well as checking out some of the links that we have for you down below to see other resources, both free as well as paid, that may be able to help you on your journey. But again, with less stress, both that being said, guys, thank you so much for making it to the very end of the video. Hopefully I was just a little help to you guys on your journey. Thanks for always being a part of mine. I'll see you guys in the next video. Again, check out these videos right here to help you on your anatomy journey, and I'll see you guys in the next one. Take care, my friends. Peace.