key: cord-0843204-soiv2pmv
authors: Cho, Min-Jeong; Hong, Joon Pio
title: Plastic Surgery Education during the COVID-19 Outbreak: Leveling the Playing Field
date: 2020-05-13
journal: Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open
DOI: 10.1097/gox.0000000000002925
sha: dca985bd8fa12680f8a8acef5669cd4f99370f58
doc_id: 843204
cord_uid: soiv2pmv

nan

(COVID-19), the state of plastic surgery education has rapidly undergone a paradigm shift. 1 To fight the war against COVID-19, plastic surgeons have stopped nonessential procedures to preserve vital resources and begun to manage critically ill patients in intensive care units. 1 In addition, many countries around the world have strongly recommended or executed orders to ban public gatherings, leaving plastic surgery education hanging. 2,3 So, how do we train ourselves, especially the residents, in this world of "social distancing"?

Before the COVID-19 era, plastic surgery education curriculum typically consisted of operating, didactic sessions, online learning modules, and conferences. In North America, plastic surgery trainees routinely gathered a few times during a week with their faculty for didactic sessions and supplemented their knowledge with online modules. 4 In addition, large residency programs allowed their trainees to be exposed to different fields of plastic surgery, but for smaller programs, there was a limit of exposure. The learning experience for trainees was even narrower in developing countries, especially those with limited resources to perform variety of surgeries and established education infrastructures.

In more developed countries where physical attendance of didactics became impossible, many plastic surgeons have rapidly started to give lectures using virtual platforms such as Skype, WebEx, or Zoom (Table 1) . Multiple plastic surgeons have already given several lectures on the American Society of Plastic Surgeons Virtual Grand Round Series and the International Microsurgery Club (Fig. 1 ) 5 with high attendance (up to 520 participants). These webinars can be accessed using a computer or a smartphone. Anyone with the webinar link can participate, ask questions using text or their microphone, and record lectures with permission. For the presenters, this type of education gives them the opportunity to share knowledge with a greater number of audiences, increasing the efficiency of education. Although this method of learning is relatively new for the trainees at North America, it has been widely accepted in the developing countries already to seek knowledge and guidance. For some, this is the only method to reach out to international experts and discuss difficult cases. However, virtual platforms carry potential security risks, such as recording without permission, "meeting hijacking," and possible breach of patient privacy.

As the fight against the COVID-19 continues, plastic surgery trainees around the world will continue to learn virtually. Whether we want to or not, this crisis has nudged and pushed us to change the way to train. This phenomenon might be a good opportunity for those in the developed countries to learn how to adapt when resources are limited and seek knowledge when it is not readily available. Furthermore, it can be an opportunity to encounter new ideas and nonconventional techniques outside one's comfort zone. For the trainees at the developing countries, this is an opportunity to further learn and bounce off ideas with trainees around the world. Most of all, this is the time to support each other and to share knowledge with each other. The time has truly come to level the playing field and to allow healthy competition that will ultimately lead to evolution of plastic surgery. Furthermore, virtual lectures may continue to stay after the outbreak because they can efficiently and effectively bring global plastic surgeons together. Who knows what surprising innovations can this lead to? 

The COVID-19 pandemic-changing lives and lessons learned

When infection prevention enters the temple: intergenerational social distancing and COVID-19

Covid-19-navigating the uncharted

The future of plastic surgery resident education

Tips for making a successful online microsurgery educational platform: the experience of international microsurgery club

The authors have no financial interest to declare in relation to the content of this article.