What our author team learned from tackling changes that had been waiting a long time

By Kevin Patton, Frank Bell, Terry Thompson, and Peggie Williamson

A textbook revision is often described as an “update.” That word seems much too weak for what sometimes happens behind the scenes.

Elsevier released the 12th edition of Anatomy & Physiology on September 15, 2026, authored by the four of us. The new edition is 40 pages shorter than the previous one—even though we added an entirely new chapter on the human microbiome. We also reorganized the reproduction chapters using a female-first sequence, reworked difficult explanations and illustrations, strengthened our approach to terminology, and expanded our representation of human variation.