Prof Stringer, who also had earlier anatomy training, was a leading paediatric liver surgeon, based in Leeds, England, before he took up a post at the University of Otago anatomy and structural biology department in 2007.
Last week, he gave an inaugural professorial lecture at the university on "Putting the Rigor into Mortis: New Horizons in Anatomy."
Some critics wrongly believed that little remained to be discovered through anatomical research, and anatomy's importance in health professional training had been much underestimated in some quarters, he said later.
He advocated a modernisation of some of the anatomy discipline's teaching approaches and terminology, and emphasised high quality research.
"Anatomy needs to have a bit of an overhaul, but it's far from dead and buried," he said.
Prof Stringer recently led a New Zealand study, undertaken in association with ACC, which showed that eight young adults had received sciatic nerve damage from "misplaced" intramuscular injections in the buttocks between 2005 and 2008.
He emphasised that thousands of similar injections were administered by nurses and doctors each year without incident.
However, if an intramuscular injection was given in the wrong place and the sciatic nerve was damaged as a result, this could have serious consequences, such as a leg becoming permanently disabled.
Having anatomical knowledge about the location of the sciatic nerve was important in avoiding such damage, he said.
Health professional bodies, including the New Zealand College of Nurses, had already been advised of the findings and such studies could show where professional training could be further refined.
He has been instrumental in developing Otago University's new postgraduate diploma in surgical anatomy, to provide more anatomy training for surgeons.
Prof Stringer, who is chairman of the anatomy committee of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, said he had been attracted to the Otago department in part because of its commitment to research and its international reputation.
Anatomy formed a strong part of Otago University medical teaching, but some overseas medical degree courses offered as little as 50 hours of direct anatomy training.
