Benefits, disadvantages and challenges of virtual conferencing in the COVID-19 era: Adjusting to the new normal

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has had tremendous effect on the medical and scientific community. Measures instituted to curb the spread of the disease such as physical distancing and ban on large gatherings have significantly altered conferencing activities of medical professional associations. With no end in sight to the pandemic, it is certain that medical professional associations may have to make do with purely virtual or hybrid conferencing for some time to come. The objective of this paper is to highlight the benefits, disadvantages and challenges of virtual conferencing Methods: We searched Pubmed, Embase, Scopus, and AJOL databases from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 for publications describing the benefits, disadvantages and challenges of virtual conferencing during the pandemic. This, together with authors' experience formed the resource base for this work. Conclusion: We propose ways the scientific community in Nigeria can maximize the virtual conferencing while the pandemic lasts. We also advocate increased discussion about how to improve the virtual conferencing culture and the development of guidelines for purely virtual or hybrid scientific conferences

Objectif de l'étude: La pandémie de COVID-19 a eu un effet considérable sur la communauté médicale et scientifique. Les mesures instituées pour freiner la propagation de la maladie, telles que l'éloignement physique et l'interdiction des grands rassemblements, ont considérablement modifié les activités de conférence des associations professionnelles médicales. Sans fin en vue de la pandémie, il est certain que les associations professionnelles médicales devront se contenter de conférences purement virtuelles ou hybrides pendant un certain temps encore. L'objectif de cet article est de mettre en évidence les avantages, les inconvénients et les défis de la conférence virtuelle. Méthodes de l'étude : Nous avons effectué des recherches dans les bases de données Pubmed, Embase, Scopus et AJOL du 1er janvier 2021 au 31 décembre 2021 pour trouver des publications décrivant les avantages, les inconvénients et les défis des conférences virtuelles pendant la pandémie. Ceci, combiné à l'expérience des auteurs, a constitué la base de ressources pour ce travail. Conclusion : Nous proposons des moyens pour que la communauté scientifique du Nigéria puisse maximiser les conférences virtuelles pendant la durée de la pandémie. Nous préconisons également une discussion accrue sur la manière d'améliorer la culture des conférences virtuelles et l'élaboration de lignes directrices pour les conférences scientifiques purement virtuelles ou hybrides

Relationship between Age; Radiographic Normal Heart Size and Cardio-Thoracic Ratio in a Nigerian Population

Background: Cardio-vascular disease (CVD) is now on the increase. The precise diagnosis of CVD is of immense clinical importance to the cardiac surgeons; pathologist and also for cardiologists. However; information on normal values for various cardio-vascular structures in Nigeria; a country with the highest population of blacks in the world is sparse. In this regard the age-related radiographic sizes of a Nigerian cohort of patients with non-cardiogenic complaints or consultations were therefore assessed.Objectives: To evaluate the limits of normal cardiac size in our environment ; determine if there was a relationship between the age and size of the heart and to evaluate the relationship between sex and cardiac size and cardio-thoracic ratio.Design: A cross-sectional study.Setting: The Radiology department of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital; Ilorin; North Central Nigeria between January to June 2012.Subjects: One Hundred patients were consecutively recruited and their chest radiographs examined after fulfilling the inclusion criteria.Results: Males accounted for 55% of the study population. The age range was 1 month to 73 years; (Mean = 29.3; SD =2.41668). The mean cardiac size was 11.7cm. The average cardiac size for adult males and females; were 11.6cm and 11.5cm respectively while that of thoracic size was 29.0cm and 26.8cm respectively. Correlation between age and cardiac size was 0.66; age and thoracic size was 0.64 and between cardiac size and thoracic size was 0.89. The paired sample t-test for age and cardiac size was less than 0.05 (p value 0.05).Conclusion: knowing the average values of cardiac size for adult males and females (11.6cm and 11.5cm) and thoracic size (29.0cm and 26.8cm) respectively from this study presents a base line for early detection of variation from normal cardiac measurements in this environment