About ECA

The Early Career Anatomists group was established as a Facebook group on the 30th March 2020, created by our Founder, Danya Stone.

This was developed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic to connect early career anatomists, predominantly aimed initially at educators to share best practice and consider how they transition from in-person to online teaching.

While ECA began as the Early Career Anatomy Academics (ECAA), an ethos was established from the very beginning, with the group description reading: "A network for people early on in their anatomy teaching career to provide support for anything related to education in anatomy. A space for meeting people in similar roles, sharing of resources, career insights and potential collaboration on future research projects."

As ECA moved through to 2022, the inital inclusion of only 'anatomy teaching' in our ethos expanded to further fields within anatomy to include those in technical roles, students, supportive roles, enthusiasts, and on the list goes.

In the afternoon of the 22nd June 2020, the first ECA event was held - A discussion-based 'Sharing Best Practice' session was organised by Lydia Boynton and focused on 'How to Recreate the DR Online'.

This was followed by more Sharing Best Practice sessions:

• Remote Small Group Teaching (7th July 2020)
• Remote Lectures - Live vs. Pre-recorded (21st July 2020)
• Remotely Monitoring Engagement (7th August 2020)

Students also began getting involved, with a medical graduate hosting a session on 28th August 2020 about 'Clinical Information for the Anatomy Teacher'.

2020 was a significant year for everyone, with many anatomists having to adapt their teaching and skills. So, ECA rounded 2020 off with a final discussion-based session organised by Danya Stone on 17th December - 'A Unique Semester: What Have We Learned?'

In 2021, ECA started to get to know some of the group members a bit more in new feature titled simply 'Meet...'

Munesh Khamuani explained when the feature was launched on 7th January 2021: "Since it is hard to get all of us in one place, why not use this platform to get to know each other better and strengthen the early career anatomy community?

The purpose of this series is to encourage collaboration, provide direction  and support to each other. It is also aimed at uplifting and empowering  everyone on this group regardless of their background, current role and  nationality."

The series covered nine anatomists from a variety of roles throughout 2021 and into early 2022.

While events may have taken a pause in 2021 as anatomists still grappled with the changes during the pandemic, the group remained active and a desire to finally meet in person was growing.

 Following the conference success, an official committee was formed in September 2022, and in recognition of the diversity of our attendees, the committee voted to be known as the Early Career Anatomists henceforth to recognise that the many people engaging with the group were from other backgrounds, and to promote a more inclusive culture.

On 6th October 2022, Early Career Anatomy Academics officially became Early Career Anatomists with it's updated ethos "A network for people early on in their anatomy career to provide support for anything related to anatomy and education. A space for meeting people in similar roles, sharing of resources, career insights and potential collaboration on future research projects."

In October 2022, ECA announced the start of it's webinar series, comprising of a mixture of online seminars, workshops, and discussion. Aimed at bringing anatomists together online, with it encouraging those outside the UK anatomy community to engage with ECA.

The first webinar was on 17th November 2022, kicked off by Dr Lauren Clunie discussing 'PhDs in Anatomy Education'.

As the webinar series continued through 2023, ECA turned it's gaze to more collaboration with the Anatomical community to help support it's members and grow ECA.

This included ECA's first collaboration with the Anatomical Society, with a pre-conference workshop being hosted at the Nottingham AnatSoc in April 2023.

The workshop looked at 'What Might a Career in Anatomy Education Look  Like?' was conducted jointly with the Anatomical Society Education Committee with the aim to support those who are interested in or  pursuing a career in Anatomy Education.

Hosted by Dr Hannah Shaw (AnatSoc Education Officer) and Dr Jo Tomlinson, it provided the opportunity to learn about the careers of Anatomy Educators along with the opportunities and challenges they have faced.

Alongside group discussions, a panel comprised of anatomists from Early Career to Professor discussed their career path and their advice to others embarking on a similar journey.

With a new logo, the promotion for the conference was in full swing, with our first social media post using the logo being the opening of the abstract submissions.

ECA 23 would run on the 24th and 25th August 2023 in Brighton, with attendees getting their chance to attend workshops, present talks and posters, buy some  anatomy-themed earrings, and even attend a dance social with The Dancing Anatomist (aka. Munesh Khamuani).

As the conference came to a close, it was announced that Danya Stone would be stepping down as ECA President, having served as Founder and then President from March 2020 until August 2023.

Dr Jo Tomlinson was voted in by the ECA Committee over the summer, and officially took up the role of ECA President in August 2023.