Continuing medical education in Covid-19 pandemic

To the Editor,

Corona virus pandemic has emerged as one of the worst hitting pandemic till date causing great damage to economic, mental and social wellbeing of people globally. Unavailability of vaccine has rendered social distancing the only means to prevent spread of this infection thus putting all the essential services to halt. Medical sector has emerged to be worst affected. Pausing all the ongoing trainee programme, undergraduate and postgraduate courses and clinical rotation of final year medical student and interns it has shifted our prime focus to prevent the community spread of disease and promote development and reorganisation of available medical resources to provide best care and suffice the current patient load. Amidst this corona virus infection continuing medical education has emerged as a challenging task. Surgical residencies who require continuous knowledge, skill and practice to learn and master the course are finding it difficult to keep up with requirement of this field and have shifted to archived videos with surgical pointers from experienced faculties to gain the required competencies [1]. According to updated curriculum by MCI of India “competency based learning” was to enter its second phase of training by now however this too has come to a pause due to this nationwide lockdown putting final year students and interns in great dilemma for selecting field of specialisation for post graduate courses due to low clinical exposure and experience [2]. Thus, this current scenario emphasizes the need to revamp the ongoing teaching methodologies so as to adapt and continue normally in many such alarming situations in future. With everyday developing technology, advent of new user-friendly software and wide data availability methods like video conferencing (via zoom app, goggle meetings), procedural and surgical videos and stimulator are ready to take over the current educational means. During this lockdown period in India above mentioned methods of learning have emerged as core means of CME. Virtual group discussions, case based learning, PowerPoint presentation with voice over, peer learning via WhatsApp groups are being greatly used in this period. Budding concept of virtual dissections adapted in premier institutes like AIIMS, Rishikesh should be developed to combat such situations in future to continue medical education [3]. Small group discussions with adequate social distancing norms are being used in psychiatry. TELEMEDICINE is an emerging concept in today’s world with few institutions using it currently. This too is an area to be developed to deal with pandemics while continuing normal activities in future. Amidst the present situation experts feel that electronic residency application service should be delayed so as to allow students to make better choices by completing clinical rotations. Reduction in number of clinical rotation will provide a fair chance to all students to attend posting in different departments and correctly select the area of interest for further studies [2]. Countries like USA are progressing to include public health in medical curriculum not just as a phrase but as a core concept with complete explanation of the term and responsibility of physician to state and local government in such crises [4]. For the assessment part Google forms, digitised images as spotters, quizzes, online viva voce via video conferencing in small groups of 15–20 students is being done. Innovative educational programmes designed by experts, professionals and universities are need of the hour so as to continue medical education among many such pandemics in coming future.