Welcome

AskAnatomist is an initiative to support community engagement in the disciplines of medical science, with a particular focus on anatomy. The @AskAnatomist Twitter account allows anyone with access to Twitter the opportunity to post an anatomy-related question using the #AnatQ hashtag. A group of anatomists located across the globe then work together to address #AnatQ questions. These #AnatQ questions also help provide topics for the AskAnatomist podcasts.

The AskAnatomist podcast series is hosted by Dr. Michelle Lazarus, a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University and focuses on relevant medical topics, providing discussion between experts within the field on a medically interesting topic.

These experts come from a range of disciplines relevant to each topic including anatomy, medicine, physiology, pharmacology, and allied health. The series introduces medical and scientific language while providing an overview of the topics covered. Each podcast is around 30 minutes long, recorded and supported by the Faculty Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and the Faculty’s Teaching Resource Support Unit.

We encourage all of our listeners to engage with any or all of our platforms. Ask a question on twitter, download and share our podcasts, post a question to this website, but most of all enjoy learning and listening to anatomy related topics by leading researchers, clinicians, and educators in the field.

Meet the Team

Michelle Lazarus – PhD

Dr Lazarus is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology in the School of Biomedical Sciences, within the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University.  She is a Monash Education Academy Fellow and an Affiliate Member of the Monash Centre for Health Professions Education (link to MCSHE website). Her research focuses on healthcare education; specifically on improving learned classroom knowledge application to the clinical setting.  She earned her PhD and did her post-doctoral work in the USA before moving to Australia in 2015. Michelle’s own experiences as a patient, both prior to and following anatomy training, sparked her interest in increasing community engagement with the discipline of anatomy. She is the creator, developer, and facilitator of the @AskAnatomist twitter feed.

Kris Nagy – BIT (Multimedia), MTeach

Kris is an Educational Engineer, having worked in a variety of educationally focused roles.

Along with the usual work that is required, he provides technical and developmental support for the creation of the podcast, including the use of technologies required; To this end, he works with Dr Lazarus to co-produce the podcast, edits the episodes, and ensures a consistent quality is maintained for each episode that is created. 

He is also responsible for updating and maintaining the Ask Anatomist website, along with organising the release of each new episode.

Georgina Stephens – MBBS (Hons)

Georgina is a registered medical practitioner and an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology at Monash University. She completed her MBBS at Monash University and worked clinically for five years, before returning to Monash in 2017 to focus on a career in anatomy education. She has recently begun research in healthcare education, specifically on the impact donor dissection has on healthcare students’ perceptions of ethics.

Tiffany Tie

Tiffany is a final year medical student at Monash University. She has undertaken clinical placements in Bendigo and Mildura, and completed a BMedSc(Hons) research year at The Alfred during which she coordinated a clinical trial on brief intervention for obesity through Monash University’s Centre for Obesity Research and Education. She is interested in medical administration, education, public health and just about everything else. Tiffany is one of the ‘student voices’ on the podcast and co-produces scripts behind the scenes.

Jonathan Woliansky – BMedSc (Hons) 

Jonathan is a final year medical student based at Monash university. He has undertaken a variety of medical placements, which have fostered an interest in surgical specialties. Last year, he undertook a research year with the Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at Monash Health, investigating adult acquired subglottic stenosis. In his free time, Jonathan has made a point of engaging in the medical education of his peers, as well as having a keen interest in global health. Jonathan is a regular panel member and producer of the AskAnatomist podcast series.

Julie Doll – MS

Julie has completed her graduate work studying human anatomy at The Ohio State University. She completed her undergraduate degree in biology at the University of Saint Francis in Illinois. Julie is currently an Anatomy Instructor in the Department of Anatomy for Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine at Midwestern University.

Julie currently runs the AskAnatomist monthly journal clubs. Have ideas for a journal club topic?! Tag @AskAnatomist and use the #AnatQ #journalclub