Virtual conferences and e-learning in dermatology during COVID-19 pandemic: Results of a web-based, global survey

Innovation in surgical trauma care education: assessment of a Panamerican Trauma Society online surgical skills course hosted by the Spanish Surgical Association

PURPOSE

Incorporating surgical skills education in trauma care is essential for young surgeons and surgical trainees. This study describes an innovative e-learning course for teaching trauma care surgical skills in an international cooperative setting. Furthermore, it aims to offer valuable insights on enhancing e-learning practices.

METHODS

The Panamerican Trauma Society and the Spanish Surgical Association have joined forces to launch an online course focusing on advanced trauma care surgical skills. This report provides an in-depth examination of the project and scrutinizes participant feedback through a post-course survey. The survey thoroughly evaluates their satisfaction level, the usefulness of the course content, and their view on its clinical relevance.

RESULTS

Three hundred eighty-two surgeons from 16 countries completed an online course. Three hundred seventy-nine of them responded to the post-course survey. The mean age was 36, with 64% females and 36% males. The course consisted of 9.9 h of academic content, including 5 h of video lectures and 4.9 h of live discussions. Ninety-seven percent of the participants were practicing general and acute care surgeons, and only 2% were exclusively dedicated to trauma surgery. Sixty-one percent of participants highly valued real-time interaction with faculty, and 95% believed their trauma surgical skills would improve. Additionally, 93% of the participants were satisfied or very satisfied with the e-learning experience.

CONCLUSIONS

The use of video-based instructional materials has revolutionized surgical education. With online courses in trauma surgery, surgeons can now improve their skills and better prepare themselves to handle severe trauma cases. This innovative approach to surgical education has proven to be very effective and can potentially enhance patients' quality of care.

[E-learning via webinars in orthopedics and trauma surgery : Increase in supply and demand during the COVID-19 pandemic]

BACKGROUND

Contact teaching was prohibited by nationwide lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. The scientific literature contains no concrete figures concerning e‑learning via webinars in the subject of orthopedics and trauma surgery in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE

This research study was established to collect facts and figures about webinars as a representative part of e‑learning in the subject of orthopedics and trauma surgery in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

German-speaking non-commercial and edited webinars, produced by suppliers from Germany were identified using common search engines. Structured interviews with questionnaires about provider, format, and number of participants in the webinars over time, were offered to the operating companies.

RESULTS

The study included four suppliers of webinars (AO Online Campus, BVOU Study Club, OU TO GO and WebDGU). There was approval of all operating companies to participate in the interviews and to disclose facts and figures about their webinars. All suppliers showed an increased supply and demand for webinars during the COVID-19 pandemic.

DISCUSSION

OU TO GO and BVOU Study Club already offered webinars prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. AO online Campus was designed in addition to the existing portfolio. The supply of WebDGU was newly established. Limitations of this study are the exclusion of commercial suppliers, non-German operating companies and all other types of e‑learning except webinars. The increased supply and demand for webinars during the COVID-19 pandemic gives hope for further improvement of e‑learning in the subject of orthopedics and trauma surgery.

The ecological footprint of physicians: A survey of physicians in Canada, India, and USA

Combating climate change may be the greatest public health opportunity of the 21st century. While physicians play an important role in addressing climate change, given their affluence in society, they may be an important source of greenhouse gas emissions themselves. We sought to examine the size and nature of the ecological footprint of physicians and medical students. We conducted an online survey from December 2021-May 2022 examining resource consumption, changes in consumption patterns over time, and beliefs about climate change. Participants were medical students, residents, and staff physicians in Canada, India, or USA. Only 20 out of 162 valid respondents had a low ecological footprint (12%), defined as meat intake ≤2 times per week, living in an apartment or condominium, and using public transport, bicycle, motorcycle or walking to work. 14 of these 20 participants were from India. 91% of participants were open to reducing their own ecological footprint, though only 40% had made changes in that regard. 49% participants who discussed climate change at work and at home had decreased their ecological footprint, compared to 29% of participants who rarely engaged in such conversations (OR 2.39, 95% CI 1.24-4.63, P = 0.01). We conclude that physicians have a large ecological footprint, especially those from Canada and USA. A majority of physicians are interested in reducing their ecological footprint, and those who engage in conversations around climate change are more likely to have done so. Talking frequently about climate change, at work and at home, will likely increase climate change action amongst physicians.

Informing a Canadian Skin Science Trainee Program Based on the State of Trainee Programs Offered by International Academic Societies

BACKGROUND

For dermatology to effectively address the ever-growing medical needs, longstanding communication barriers across investigators working in different research pillars and practicing clinicians must be improved. To address this problem, trainee-specific programs are now evolving to align their educational landscape across basic science, translational and clinical research programs.

OBJECTIVES

To establish a Skin Investigation Network of Canada (SkIN Canada) training roadmap for the career and skill development of future clinicians, clinican scientists and basic scientists in Canada. This Working Group aims to strengthen and harmonize collaborations and capacity across the skin research community.

METHODS

The Working Group conducted a search of established international academic societies which offered trainee programs with mandates similar to SkIN Canada. Societies' program items and meetings were evaluated by use of an interview survey and/or the collection of publicly available data. Program logistics, objectives and feedback were assessed for commonalities and factors reported or determined to improve trainee experience.

RESULTS

Through the various factors explored, the Working Group discovered the need for increasing program accessibility, creating opportunities for soft skill development, emphasizing the importance of current challenges, collecting and responding to feedback, and improving knowledge sharing to bridge pillars of skin research.

CONCLUSIONS

Although improvements have been made to trainee education in recent years, a plurality of approaches exist and many of the underlying roadblocks remain unresolved. To establish fundamental clinician-basic scientist collaboration and training efforts, this Working Group highlights important factors to include and consider in building a trainee program and emphasizes the importance of trainee education.

Integration of virtual platforms for enhanced conference experience: Data-based evidence from the Society of Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies 2021 conference

BACKGROUND

The Society of Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies (SIPS) was one of many organizations that hosted a virtual scientific conference in response to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Retaining essential benefits of an in-person conference experience was a primary objective for the SIPS conference planning committee and guided the selection of a virtual platform on which to host the 2021 meeting. This article reports on the methods used to design and analyze an engaging, virtual scientific conference, along with the findings and implications for future meetings.

METHODS

Participant use of and interaction with different features of the conference platform were recorded and exported for analysis. Additionally, all SIPS conference attendees were invited to complete a brief, online post-conference survey that inquired about their perceptions of the SIPS conference specifically as well as their opinions of virtual and hybrid conferences in general. Using these data, we assessed (1) attendance patterns, (2) level of engagement, and (3) attendee satisfaction.

RESULTS

The platform recorded 438 unique, active conference attendees who used either a mobile app, web browser, or both to participate during the 3-day program. Seventy-four percent (N = 324) of active users attended all 3 days with 30 and 26 new attendees on Days 2 and 3, respectively. The connections feature offered on the platform was the most utilized function within the online forum. Attendance in the parallel workshop sessions remained constant across the 3 days, with an average of 44.6% (SD = 6.77) of people moving between workshops within a single session. The two poster sessions had an average of 47.6 (SD = 17.97) and 27.8 (SD = 10.24) unique views per poster, respectively. Eleven percent (N = 48) of attendees completed the post-conference survey. Thirty-six percent of these responders stated they were only able to attend because the conference was offered virtually. Further, the quality of the conference had an average satisfaction rating of 68.08 out of 100 (SD = 22.94).

CONCLUSION

Results of data analyses suggest the virtual platform allowed for those who were unable to attend to join virtually, produced moderate engagement throughout the conference, and that the majority of attendees were satisfied with the quality of the fully-virtual conference. Therefore, incorporating virtual aspects in future in-person conferences could enhance conference experience and participation.

Factors Influencing Online Learning Satisfaction

Online learning has received extensive attention in the field of education in the recent decade, especially after COVID-19 swept the globe in 2020. Online learning satisfaction (OLS) has become the focal point of the research, since it is of vital significance to enhance online learning efficiency. This paper reviews the research on OLS from the dimensions of online learners, online instructors, online platforms and online instructional design to have a clear picture of factors affecting OLS. Based on the review of previous studies, this mini review presents the prospect of future research on OLS and believes that breakthroughs on OLS research can be achieved by innovating research methods, expanding research subjects, and enriching research topics. OLS is a complicated dynamic system influenced by a diversity of factors, and it is worth more in-depth research by scholars and educators in future.

How Will Video Conference Fatigue Affect Participants of MICE in the With-COVID-19 Era? Focusing on Video Conference Quality, Social Presence Theory, and Flow

Is our mental health at risk due to spending a significant amount of time online due to the COVID-19 pandemic? In the new era that we are living in, where we live a life that coexists with the virus, we are participating in video conferences held online rather than on-site in order to slow the spread of the virus. Video conferencing has become our necessity since March 2020, and is becoming a new standard, especially in the MICE industry. Recently, however, people who have excessively used video conference platforms are complaining of video conference fatigue, which is a new negative emotion such as stress, anxiety, and worry as well as general work fatigue. Therefore, this study focused on the mechanism of video conferencing in MICE, which is rapidly digitally converted by the virus, and the digital psychological factors of the participants. This study derived the quality attributes of video conferencing in MICE and empirically analyzed the relationship with digital psychological factors of the video conference participants, such as video conference fatigue, social presence, and flow. One hundred and thirty-eight valid questionnaires collected from participants of several international academic conferences held in EXCO, Daegu, Korea, from 23 to 28 May 2021, were analyzed. The main results are as follows. First, unlike general video conference fatigue, MICE video conference fatigue was not found to be related to the preceding and following variables. This is due to the characteristics of the MICE video conference and the expertise of the participants. Second, social presence was identified as an important variable in MICE video conferencing. Although media-mediated, the feeling of being present with the presenter and participants was found to affect the participants' flow in the video conference. Third, in this study, the fun factor was identified as the most important video conference quality that can enhance the social presence of the video conference participants of MICEs.