Mikaela Stiver, PhD

Eliminate them all!! Hemicord syndrome is the same number of syllables AND actually describes the anatomical lesion… #DescriptiveTerminologyFTW

Paul Broca was a total piece of work too… just to name ONE other 😉

Two dogs atop a tree stump in the forest looking toward the right side of the image. The dog (a Yorkshire terrier) on the left is standing and the dog on the right (a very small cavapoo) is lying down.

I come on Bluesky these days less frequently that most first-year university students wash their bed sheets, but I’m popping on today to assure everyone that my dog is still adorable AND she recently made a tiny friend 🐶🌲❤️

Time to get excited. Like toddler at Disney World excited.

CIRCLE OF WILLIS, a board game about vascular anatomy, is here!

@befast.bsky.social and I set out to make a #MEdEd game that is more fun than Epcot. Life goal unlocked.

Tell your friends and parents!
www.neurdgames.com/circle-of-willis

Selfie of a girl with long, light brown hair smiling and wearing a paisley print dress with a white cardigan

Obligatory first day of work selfie from Wednesday afternoon! 📸✌🏼

It has been a whirlwind of a short week in my new position at UBC and my emotions are an overwhelming mix of excitement + ‘fish out of water’ / imposter syndrome, but I’m going to just keep swimming until it feels like home! 🐟💙

Excited to announce that our visual fields game, "Field Cut," is a finalist for an educational game award called the Gee!

Being a finalist also makes it eligible for their People's Choice Award. Please vote for Field Cut here! www.geeawards.com

More on Field Cut:
www.neurdgames.com/field-cut

Coming soon: Epipocalypse: Bug Detectives, A Medical Card Game Learn infectious disease epidemiology through a simple card game. Geography, vectors, reservoirs, and more!

📢 Update: the Kickstarter for Epipocalypse: Bug Detectives is coming SEPTEMBER 2025. Learn ID epi with a card game!

Click to be notified when it launches. Early backers will receive a free Emerging Infections bonus card pack. #IDSky #MedSky #EpiSky

www.kickstarter.com/projects/pha...

Definitely worth considering!

Selfie of a women with brown hair in a pony tail and wearing navy blue scrubs

Last day of work at McGill University was an absolute rollercoaster of emotions 💙

Excited to be starting my next chapter as an Assistant Professor of Teaching at UBC (@ubccps.bsky.social) on July 1st … but first, I have a lot of packing to finish and an overflowing email inbox to attend to 😂🎉

🤣 nah once I’m in Vancouver I’ll drive down the West Coast. Just avoiding the rest of the proverbial meth lab in the basement where possible, as I call it in the most endearing way 😉

I’m staying north of the 49th parallel as much as possible these days, so glad to see it’s online 😜 looks amazing!!!

Ciao from my little home away from home in Italia! 💚🤍❤️

Looking forward to finally meeting the first year Harvey Med students in person in ~1 week… ma prima, le vacanze!! ✌🏼

Gamifying anatomy outreach: An underexplored opportunity This article explores the underutilized potential of incorporating gamified approaches into anatomy outreach initiatives. While gamification and game-based learning approaches have been widely adopte...

Fresh off the presses!!!
🗞️🧩♟️🎲🎉

doi.org/10.1002/ase....

Part of a Special Issue on Anatomical Engagement & Science Communication… with lots of other great articles that you should also check out! #AnatEd #MedEd #GBL #GamifiedLearning

Teeny tiny beige cavapoo lying on a wooden deck looking off in the distance with a pile of snow and metal plant trellis in the background

Teeny tiny London wishes everyone on Bluesky a Happy Monday!! ✌🏼🎉🐶

Just like that, I have wrapped up the final course I get to coordinate at McGill University! 💔😭

Anatomy for Surgeons (a.k.a., Anatomy for Med-4s Who Love Anatomy) is my FAVOURITE course & it's bittersweet to say goodbye... so obviously I seized one final chance to make silly student certificates 🫀✌🏼

a pug dog is looking at a birthday cake with a lit candle Alt: a pug dog is looking at a birthday cake with a lit candle

Got a paper accepted on my (sort of) birthday!!! 🎉🤓🙏🏼

Non-leap years are a bit anticlimactic because my birthday gets a bit forgotten, but I appreciate the universe giving me a little win just the same! Cheers to my co-authors, getting older one quarter birthday at a time, and happy coincidences 🥂

Analog Serious Games for Medical Education: A Scoping Review : Academic Medicine rovides recommendations regarding gaps and emerging directions for future research. Method The authors conducted a scoping review following the Arksey and O’Malley framework, searching 3 databases ...

This has been online for a little while, but I’m so excited to see this scoping review finally published 🎉❤️📝

My first LAST author paper with a couple wonderful students and some of my favourite #GBL friends & collaborators!! @drsarahedwards.bsky.social @empiricgame.bsky.social @tchanmd.bsky.social

Here are just a few of my favourites 💜
1) Retina
2) Uterine tube
3) Pancreas
4) Seminiferous tubule

Please download, colour, and share 🙏🏼

It is with IMMENSE pride (& a touch of relief... WOW, drawing histology is more challenging than I imagined) that I share all 105 illustrations I contributed to the first ever Histology Colouring Book, created by Drs. Franz-Odendaal & Pinder 🤩🔬🖍️

histologycoloringbook.com
#Histology #AnatEd #MedEd

Delighted to see them being put to good use!! It's certainly no fancy AI anatomy art... *note to self for next time: more cats?* 😆

a woman is smiling with the words i learned a thing behind her ALT: a woman is smiling with the words i learned a thing behind her

My brilliant med students taught me that in French the pudendal nerve used to be called “nerf honteux”, meaning “shameful/disgraceful nerve” — presumably related to the better known fact that “pudendal” itself is derived from the latin verb pudere = “to be ashamed”!

#ValentinesDay anatomy facts ❤️

Oh, I do too! Every "easy" plant I've ever had has been dead within a few weeks and I really do try my best. I'm sticking with lego plants and crochet plants from now on!

And absolutely adorable highland cows at that... or should I say coos? 😁 Maybe that will be my next crochet project if I can find a nice pattern!

I have not, but I certainly will! Thank you for sharing ☺️

Three crocheted cacti and a crocheted succulent sitting on a black box in front of an exposed brick wall

Every time I open the news I want to start sobbing and/or punching pillows, so instead I’m crocheting Woobles cacti and succulent kits, & I hope they will cheer everyone else up a bit too 🌵🪴💚

a man with a mustache and a suit says " it 's science " Alt: GIF of a man with a mustache and a suit (Ron Burgundy) saying "it's science”

Apropos of nothing 🙄 “large reproductive cell[s]” are called ova, “small reproductive cell[s]” are called sperm (spermatozoa, if you’re fancy), zygotes do not produce either gamete “at conception”, and some people never produce gametes at all…

…and that’s just the TIP of the iceberg! 🫠

You can come here and borrow London 😅

Even pulling super late nights to finish recommendation letters, manuscript reviews, and lecture slides is tolerable with my best friend helping me out 🐶💜

Yeah that tracks ❤️‍🩹
If at first you don’t succeed… ✌🏼

Brunette woman smiling and holding a small beige dog (specifically a cavapoo) and standing in front of a Christmas tree. They are wearing matching dark green pyjamas with a gingerbread men and candy cane pattern.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve 😉🎄

London and I are spending some quality time in our matching Christmas PJs while watching Richard Osman’s House of Games reruns on YouTube ✌🏼