Bibliometric and visualized analysis of global research on technology in anatomy education from 1987 to 2021

While anatomy has been taught by means of traditional methods for centuries, today anatomy education methods are developing with various digital educational resources. Therefore, determining the trends of publications on the use of technology in anatomy education can provide a roadmap for future studies on this topic. This study aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the documents about technology in anatomy education. Using the bibliometric analysis method, 437 documents between 1987 and 2021 were included in the study. Publications in journals indexed in Web of Science were reviewed in terms of the country, journal, citation, year, author, keywords, co-authorship, co-occurrence, and co-citation. The H-index value of the publications was 47, and the total number of citations was 8501. The publications highlight an exponential increase in the last few years, as well as the prominence of a particular journal and countries such as the USA, England or Australia. Wilson TD was the most prolific author in the field. According to the co-occurrence analysis, it is observed that the terms “gross anatomy education”, and “medical education” are frequently used by the authors. In the last few years, 3D printing, virtual reality, augmented reality and social media were selected in anatomy education. This study identified the main research hotspots related to the use of technology in anatomy education. The findings can also help provide new directions and ideas for future research.