key: cord-1044830-0oasvja3 authors: Yusuf, Naeem; Hussain, Nafisa; Sherif, Mohamed; Harky, Amer title: Training in cardiothoracic surgery: Another victim of COVID‐19 pandemic date: 2021-06-25 journal: J Card Surg DOI: 10.1111/jocs.15772 sha: 5624fe23d558a791758937d175a96985a42ff782 doc_id: 1044830 cord_uid: 0oasvja3 nan the population and healthcare systems, both on a national and global scale. The COVID-19 pandemic has pressurized healthcare systems to the breaking point, which forced significant reconfiguration and operational changes to provide safe and effective patient care. 2 One strategy was to cease certain services and redeploy staff to areas of greater need, and during the interim, it appeared to be successful. However, this approach negatively impacted particular areas of healthcare, such as surgical training. 4 and South/Central America (6/81, 7.4%). The study reported that juniors were more likely to be reassigned to COVID-19 specific units in comparison to seniors (48% vs. 19.8%, p < .01). Half of the trainees who participated in the survey (n = 63) had more than 50% case volume reduction and US trainees were more likely to report reduced operative case volumes. In addition, 83% of the trainees (n = 104) did not feel that their overall clinical acumen was adversely affected by COVID-19. Surgical training includes operating skills and extensive nonoperating, nontechnical skills such as preoperative assessment and perioperative management, something that has been lost out on due to the changes in the face-to-face outpatient clinics and reduced operative volumes. 4 have explored this impact in their study. Their findings reveal that 72.2% (n = 91) of the CTS trainees were removed from or got reduced exposure to CTS-related rotations. Moreover, they noted that 65.1% (n = 82) of trainees lost inpatient clinical time due to staffing/ scheduling changes and/or quarantine requirements related to exposure and/or illness. Onorati et al. 8 studied the effects of COVID-19 in cardiac surgery practice on a larger scale by sending out surveys to cardiac surgery centers worldwide. It was found that cardiac surgery caseload declined in 93.4% of centers, COVID-19 infections in cardiac surgery patients had a 41%-50% mortality in 9.5% of the centers, and 91%-100% mortality in 4.7% centers. 8 Another large-scale survey identified 50%-75% cardiac surgery reduction during the pandemic, with more than 50% reduction in ICU beds and cardiac theaters. 9 Also, Gaudino et al. 9 to find out that 25% of a trainee who assigned to COVID related areas were assigned to drive through COVID swabbing. It is not the best utilization of highly trained doctors in the middle of the pandemic, and it is an area to be explored further so we can learn from this pandemic and utilize our human resources to enhance surge capacity during pandemics. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan COVID-19 and cardiac surgery: a perspective from United Kingdom World Health Organization. WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard The perceived global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on doctors' medical and surgical training: an international survey The COVID-19 crisis: reflections on cardiothoracic surgery training COVID-19 and cardiothoracic surgery: effects on training & workforce utilization in a global pandemic Impact of COVID-19 on cardiac surgical training: our experience in the United Kingdom Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on cardiac surgery practice in 61 hospitals worldwide: results of a survey Response of cardiac surgery units to COVID-19: an internationallybased quantitative survey COVID-19 and cardiac surgery: a perspective from United Kingdom The authors declare that there are no conflict of interests. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1874-6738Mohamed Sherif http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5544-3528Amer Harky http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5507-5841