key: cord-0863286-i0voag7d
authors: Ali, Stephen R.; Dobbs, Thomas D.; Whitaker, Iain S.
title: Webinars in plastic and reconstructive surgery training - a review of the current landscape during the COVID-19 pandemic
date: 2020-05-22
journal: J Plast Reconstr Aesthet Surg
DOI: 10.1016/j.bjps.2020.05.038
sha: 3f02d1e71a8ab0f31f571c4f5a4c1c7686a465aa
doc_id: 863286
cord_uid: i0voag7d

nan

Stephen R Ali 1,2 , Thomas D Dobbs 1,2 , Iain S Whitaker 1 Speciality and trainee associations have traditionally used their websites and email lists to publicise training opportunities. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen a shift to social media; with people seeking constant updates and information from public figures, brands and organisations alike. Surgical education has mirrored this trend, and we have increasingly observed that webinars are being launched through speciality and trainee association social channels to keep up with the fast-paced demand for accessible online content. The aim of this study was to audit cumulative compliance of active publicly accessible postgraduate plastic surgery training webinar frequency and duration against JCST Quality Indicators.

We used the social listening tool Brand24 TM (https://brand24.com). This tool monitors social media platforms for selected 'keywords' and provides analysis of search results. We used the search terms "Plastic Surgery Webinar", "Reconstructive Surgery Webinar", "Royal College of Surgeons", "BAPRAS", "BSSH", "British Burns Association", "PLASTA" and "BSSH". There were 733 mentions of these terms from 6 th May 2019 to 5 th May 2020 and 727 of these were after 23 rd March 2020, the date that lockdown began in the United Kingdom (UK). This represents an increase of 12017% post-lockdown. We supplemented this search strategy by searching Google TM and YouTube TM with "Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Webinar". These search engines rank results in order of relevance using a relevancy algorithm, we therefore reviewed the first 100 results only. Additional webinars were identified through a snowballing technique where the host webinar webpage was searched for advertised webinars at other institutions. We included any educational webinar series aimed at trainees that was free to access, mirroring weekly plastic surgery HST teaching. Free webinars which required membership registration were also included. We excluded webinars aimed at patient or parent education, webinars with less than one video, any historic webinar that did not have an accessible link and webinars behind a paywall or requiring paid membership. We systematically reviewed the search results from Brand24 TM , Google TM and YouTube TM and identified webinar series currently in progress (Table 1 ) and historic webinar series (Table 2) . Seven active webinar series and two historic webinar series were identified respectively. All were consultant or equivalent delivered. Of the active webinar series, 3 (43%) related to COVID-19, 2 (29%) related to aesthetic surgery, 1 (14%) related to pan-plastic surgery and 1 (14%) related to hand surgery. The weekly total running time for active webinars amounted to 8 hours 30 mins, with 4 hours and 30 minutes plastic surgery specific. This was a surplus of 2 hours 30 minutes to JCST Quality Indicators.

Limitations of this study include us only identifying webinars advertised publicly. We are aware of training programmes in the UK running in-house webinar series to supplement training and therefore the total available for training is likely to be higher than we have identified. We have also not reviewed the quality of educational content. We acknowledge there are good quality webinar series that require paid for membership such as those provided by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons and American Society of Plastic Surgeons but it was not the aim of the study to present them here.

Innovation flourishes during times of crisis. The education of surgical trainees is of paramount importance and should be maintained, even during the difficult times we currently face. While operative skills will be difficult to develop, the use of technology can allow for the remote delivery of expert teaching to a large number of trainees at once. In this study we identify a number of freely available webinar series that provide a greater number of teaching hours than is recommended by the JCST. The training exists, it is up to trainees to make the most of it.

Quality Indicators for Plastic Surgery Training

Available at URL: Available at