Fellowship Training for the Future Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Director

E-learning in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases

BACKGROUND

Becoming and staying competent is a challenge in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases because of dramatic increases in medical knowledge, discovery of new pathogens, emerging infections, new resistance mechanisms and laboratory techniques. E-learning is an effective way of meeting educational needs by providing more efficient and flexible training. E-learning resources have become more important to acquire new knowledge and skills, especially at a time of physical distancing.

OBJECTIVES

This review aims to summarize the implementation of e-learning in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases with references to existing examples and resources.

SOURCES

Literature and online resources for e-learning, online teaching/education in medical education, clinical microbiology and infectious diseases.

CONTENT

The principles and common methods of e-learning and frequently used digital tools are described. For all aspects of e-learning/distance learning, available resources and examples of applications in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases are presented.

IMPLICATIONS

The techniques, tools and resources described in this article should be considered for the development and implementation of e-learning programmes in clinical microbiology and infectious disease training.

Factors associated with the research efficiency of clinical specialties in a research-oriented hospital in China

Research-oriented hospitals are responsible for medical services tasks, medical education, and scientific research, playing an important role in medical research and application. The research efficiency of a clinical specialty is influenced by factors such as the characteristics of the specialty, the organizational atmosphere, and the clinical director’s leadership. The present study aimed to describe the research efficiency of clinical specialties, explore the factors influencing it, and clarify the argument of co-evolution theory regarding the collaborative development of medical services, education, and research. Logistic regression and multiple linear regression were adopted to estimate the correlation between influencing factors and scientific research efficiency. Hospital H, which is representative of research hospitals in China, was taken as an example. Taking three efficiency values—comprehensive technical efficiency (CTE), pure technical efficiency (PTE), and scale efficiency (SE)—as dependent variables, the independent variables affecting research productivity were statistically analyzed. This study also examined the scientific research efficiency of 41 specialties between 2013 and 2017, and found that the independent variables affected CTE, PTE, and SE to various degrees. Collaborative innovation in medical education and research must be based on clinical research; how to balance medical and teaching quality, and research efficiency requires further discussion. While young people play a major role on the research team because of their creativity and initiatives, which improve CTE and PTE, high-level researchers with better research and leadership abilities lead to the rational allocation and effective utilization of resources, thus improving SE. In 2013–2017, discipline construction focused on scale expansion, resulting in the decline of SE in China. Therefore, this study suggests further improvements for the efficiency of clinical specialties in research hospitals.