key: cord-1002745-ear364y7
authors: Kotta, Prasanti Alekhya; Corso, Brittany; Brailovsky, Yevgeniy; Oliveros, Estefania
title: The Impact of 2020 and the Future of Cardiology Training: How Do We Innovate?
date: 2021-04-21
journal: JACC Case Rep
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaccas.2021.02.026
sha: 4e807096b6ee89d61fef4dd9ec2a25597616da62
doc_id: 1002745
cord_uid: ear364y7

[Figure: see text]

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically changed health care around the world. Trainees were deployed to COVID duty, nonurgent cardiology services were cancelled, elective components in training programs were abandoned, video-based consultations were adopted, and volume of cardiology admissions reduced; all aspects of cardiology service provision were disrupted. These changes led to major disruptions in cardiology training and necessitated adaptation of nontraditional teaching methods.

In the United Kingdom, some hospitals noted a >50% reduction in cardiology admissions and 40% reduction in the number of myocardial infarctions (1) . In the United States, elective cardiovascular procedures were postponed and there was a 38% reduction in STsegment elevation myocardial infarction activations (2) . There was also a significant fall in the number of echocardiograms, cardiac stress tests, and diagnostic angiograms performed (1) . Training programs have observed increased trainee participation in conferences.

The pandemic has also reduced laboratory-based, 

Although the pandemic caused much disruption to cardiology training, it has provided opportunities to adapt and be innovative (Figure 1 ). We learned: 2. Improved platforms to facilitate health care access:

Telemedicine is likely to remain a long-lasting legacy in the post-pandemic era. The increased efficiency it offers can be used to tackle the postpandemic backlog and its advantages of permitting service provision to patients regardless of their geographical location will be beneficial going forward.

3. New ways to assess competency: The pandemic has allowed the opportunity to re-evaluate historical assessment methods and permitted for new trainee assessment methods to be trialed.

Competency-based assessment are being positively received by trainees and program directors: the personalized approach will allow trainees to identify their individual weaknesses and preferentially work on these. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was some reticence about pursuing some of these initiatives but they have quickly become the norm. We should seize the opportunity to be innovative, resilient, and adaptive; to find new ways to address the challenges the pandemic has thrown at us and help trainees gain skills, make themselves more competitive, and fill the gaps in their knowledge. 

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiology services

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on interventional cardiology training in the United States

The impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular training programs: challenges, responsibilities, and opportunities

Cardiology training in times of COVID-19: beyond the present

Digitalising medical education: virtual ward rounds during COVID-19 and beyond

KEY WORDS cardiovascular training, education, fellowship, simulation, telemedicine