“We help the living by learning from the dead”
Johannes Streicher
Anatomist
Professor Johannes Streicher, module coordinator at Karl Landsteiner University and head of the
Department of Systematic Anatomy at the Medical University of Vienna, spoke to Eva-Maria Gruber
about the links between anatomy and embryology, why dissection is still essential despite modern
computer technology, and how his first encounter with dissection cadavers had a lasting impact on his
future career.
(Photo: Michael Moser/KL)
What is systematic anatomy exactly?
Applied anatomy is mainly concerned with making clinical morphological diagnoses, whereas the
primary focus of systematic anatomy is the form and structure of the human body, and related
teaching and research. But of course there’s some crossover – clinical anatomy is very relevant to
what we do. We work very closely with many university and teaching hospitals on research projects.
For instance, the department of Systematic Anatomy at the Medical University of Vienna has a
working group for clinical anatomy which liaises with specialists in plastic surgery, neurosurgery and
orthopaedics. It's better to develop new methods like minimally invasive surgery in conjunction with
anatomists, rather than testing them on living people.
How is your field related to histology and embryology?
You could describe them as morphological cousins of anatomy. All three of them are concerned with
the structure of a healthy human body. Anatomy observes and analyses the body with the naked eye,
or macroscopically, histology examines it with a microscope, and embryology aims to find out how an
organism develops, and why it develops in a certain way and not in another. They are all so closely
related that they often overlap are very interlinked. Their central question is: why is the human body
structured and organised like it is?
Which means contrary to popular belief, anatomy isn’t just about dead bodies, it’s also got a
lot to do with life...
Yes, exactly! As the anatomists’ maxim goes: Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae – this is
the place where death delights to teach the living. We help the living by learning from donated bodies.
That's what we do – and in two senses: body donation enables us to teach medical students, and we
can also help patients by training would-be doctors in surgical procedures and making advances in
medical science. The dead help us to develop and master new surgical strategies, examination
techniques and treatments.
Students at Karl Landsteiner University learn a lot about anatomy early on in their studies,
using virtual 3D simulations projected onto the whiteboard. So why is working on preserved
bodies still so important?
It’s the only way to provide naturally developed, three dimensional representations of the human body.
Virtual cadavers are ideal for examining individual elements, zooming in on structures, looking below
the surface, and virtually dissecting structures in layers, from the skin to the muscle. But touching and
feeling tissue, experiencing the texture of human skin, fat and muscle tissue, or the course of delicate
nerve pathways and blood vessels – you can only do that with a real cadaver. Also, no two people are
exactly anatomically alike. I work with computer tools like Visible Human, it’s a standardised person,
dissected into 1,830 millimetre thin slices. But in the dissecting room students are confronted with
individuals who differ from these standardised 3D examples in many ways. For instance, maybe the
nerves and blood vessels follow very different courses. Trainee doctors have to be aware of things like
this. Digital representation is an extremely valuable new study aid, but it’s no replacement for the
hands-on study of anatomy using donated cadavers.
How did you end up in anatomy?
After I had taken my basic science exams – physics, chemistry and biology – which formed the first
part a medical degree at that time, I was confronted with my very first “patients” in the anatomy
department’s dissection room. I realised what a fascinating area it was and why building up a mental
picture of the inner structure of the human body through dissection was so relevant to medicine. I
thought to myself, “hold on!” this is a way to basically cut through all the abstract theory and apply it to
the patient from inside out! I didn't have any reservations about touching the corpses, I actually
couldn’t wait to finally see and understand the structures. I was doing a course on the evolutionary
biology of human anatomy at the same time and so I found out about developmental morphology.
That’s how I first became interested in the role of ontogenetic and phylogenetic interdependencies in
morphogenesis, which is now my specialist area of research.
What do you like doing in your free time? What helps you take your mind off anatomy?
My family (which includes a dachshund) is important in helping me find the right balance. Music’s
always been a key aspect of my life. I do sports regularly, which means I spend a lot of time outdoors.
It allows me to relax and think about scientific or teaching ideas, and helps me to find new
perspectives on things. It’s often a source of inspiration for my work.
Profile
Professor Johannes Streicher
Born in 1962 in Vienna, Johannes Streicher grew up in the Austrian capital and in Lower Austria. He
studied medicine at the University of Vienna and holds a post-doctoral lecturing qualification in
anatomy and embryology. Since 2013 he has been the coordinator of the somatology module of the
Health Sciences bachelor programme at Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences. Professor
Streicher has been head of the Department of Systematic Anatomy at the Medical University of
Vienna’s Center for Anatomy and Cell Biology since 2011. He coordinates the Organ Morphology I, II
and III courses at the Medical University of Vienna, and was the Deputy Curriculum Director there from
2003-2007. He has been a ERASMUS and ECTS coordinator for international student exchange
programmes for many years, and is responsible for designing and implementing blended learning and
e-testing tools used in anatomy courses. He has also developed a lecture in medical terminology and
is a co-editor of Waldeyer Anatomie des Menschen, an anatomy text book. He is a member of several
professional bodies and organisations, including the Österreichische Morphologische Gesellschaft
(Austrian Association of Morphology), the Deutsche Anatomische Gesellschaft (German Association of
Anatomy), the American Association of Anatomists and the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and
Cognition Research.