Coronavirus 2019 Video Conferencing: Preserving Resident Education with Online Meeting Platforms

Abstract

Although our medical system strains to compensate under the new demands of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, our society has rapidly accepted the tenets of social distancing. The constraints of social distancing may lead to detrimental effects on resident education. The backbone of our educational system has traditionally depended on in-person gatherings of residents and faculty for the exchange of knowledge. Accordingly, surgical residency programs have rapidly been tasked with innovating efficacious models to maximize resident learning while protecting residents and faculty from possible coronavirus disease exposure. Easily accessible online platforms for meeting spaces have allowed for large groups to meet and have face-to-face interaction without incurring risk of contamination. There are multiple Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996–compliant platforms for online real-time video interaction and educational curricula that are available to institutions.1 These online platforms can facilitate both hospital and educational activities and permit gathering of large groups of residents in the same online meeting space for educational rounds2 (Fig. 1). This online educational platform, deemed distance learning, has been studied in the literature with good results.3 This ability to visualize and interact with the presenter engages the learner and can effectively convey visual context cues to enhance the learning experience. Literature surrounding distance learning has identified three kinds of interaction that contribute to learning: interaction with content, interaction with instructors, and interaction among peers.4 With its ease of use, residency programs should consider introducing these online platforms into weekly or perhaps daily educational platforms.Fig. 1.: University of Southern California plastic and reconstructive surgery real-time weekly surgical case conference.The utility of these distance-learning platforms will likely persist after the world recovers from the educational paradigm shift associated with a communal fight against coronavirus disease spread. In programs spread over large geographic areas, the ability to attend in-person educational lectures often requires sacrificing clinical duties to traverse long distances to attend in-person conferences. The ability to remotely attend educational lectures can facilitate higher resident turnout and/or even facilitate the recording of these sessions for later review.3 Residents using distance learning platforms positively reflect on the ease of access to education, ability to take the course from any location, and the ability to be taught by anyone in the world.5 The ability to eliminate the cost of travel and lodging and the loss of patient care opportunities for the visiting professor along with the ability for residents to attend across a wide geographic area all are strengths of the online meeting space platform (Fig. 2).Fig. 2.: University of California, San Diego, plastic and reconstructive surgery virtual grand rounds conference.Although it is difficult to see the silver lining of the changes forced on our health care system, the necessity to adopt new modalities for resident education may give rise to new, more efficacious modalities for resident education and stewardship. Resident education cannot afford to stall in the time of coronavirus disease. SUBJECT CONSENT Subjects provided written consent for the use of their images. DISCLOSURE The authors have no financial interest to declare in relation to the content of this article.

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