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Purpose@#This study explored how the Korean Medical Colleges responded to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the medical deans’ perspectives on what and how these adaptions influence the present and the future of medical education. @*Methods@#An email survey combining short and open-ended questions was distributed to all 40 Korean school deans in May 2020. Thirty-seven deans out of 40 medical schools in Korea (92.5%) participated. @*Results@#Most lectures moved online but students’ assessments were delayed and later held onsite. Clinical rotations continued except for an average of 3-week suspension during the first COVID-19 wave. The deans’ remarks on the positive influences far outweighed the negative impact of COVID-19 on medical education. Although technological adaptations caused initial hardship, the experience gained through the use of various online learning systems led to attitudinal changes on the importance of adopting new technology and a tailored and student centric curriculum in medical education. @*Conclusion@#The deans’ perspective changes has shown the possibility of the deans’ generation aligning more closely with the current Generation Z medical students. They projected further innovations in teaching and learning methods, especially applying flipped learning and highlighted the need to invest in faculty development so medical educators can be equipped and competent in diverse ICT (information and communications technology) learning platforms. Also, the need for advance preparations in medical education for future similar public health crises were stressed. Unprecedented changes brought by COVID-19 positively impacted Korean medical education in parts and the Korean deans envisioned further innovations using the experiences gained during this crisis.
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Creation of guidelines and education on digital professionalism have been sluggish despite the ever-increasing use of social media by digitally native medical students, who are at risk of blurring the line between their professional and personal lives online. A qualitative thematic analysis was applied on 79 videos extracted from 70,154 YouTube videos uploaded by Korean medical students between March and April 2020. We found 20% contained at least one concerning behavior themed under ‘failure to engage,’ ‘disrespectful behaviors,’ or ‘poor selfawareness.’ Professional lapses identified were classified into seriousness levels. Mostly were “controversial’ or ‘concerning’ but some ‘highly concerning’ contents were also found. This is the first study on digital professionalism behavior on medical students' YouTube videos. The potential negative impact on the medical profession of the easily accessible public online videos cannot be ignored and thus we suggest the need for them to be taken more seriously.
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Purpose@#This study explored how the Korean Medical Colleges responded to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the medical deans’ perspectives on what and how these adaptions influence the present and the future of medical education. @*Methods@#An email survey combining short and open-ended questions was distributed to all 40 Korean school deans in May 2020. Thirty-seven deans out of 40 medical schools in Korea (92.5%) participated. @*Results@#Most lectures moved online but students’ assessments were delayed and later held onsite. Clinical rotations continued except for an average of 3-week suspension during the first COVID-19 wave. The deans’ remarks on the positive influences far outweighed the negative impact of COVID-19 on medical education. Although technological adaptations caused initial hardship, the experience gained through the use of various online learning systems led to attitudinal changes on the importance of adopting new technology and a tailored and student centric curriculum in medical education. @*Conclusion@#The deans’ perspective changes has shown the possibility of the deans’ generation aligning more closely with the current Generation Z medical students. They projected further innovations in teaching and learning methods, especially applying flipped learning and highlighted the need to invest in faculty development so medical educators can be equipped and competent in diverse ICT (information and communications technology) learning platforms. Also, the need for advance preparations in medical education for future similar public health crises were stressed. Unprecedented changes brought by COVID-19 positively impacted Korean medical education in parts and the Korean deans envisioned further innovations using the experiences gained during this crisis.
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Purpose@#The number of international visiting scholars has been on the increase in Korea and we aim to investigate the program’s current situation. @*Methods@#This cross-sectional study is based on an online survey questionnaire responded by international visiting scholars in surgical departments of 8 Korean hospitals between 2014 and 2018 about their experiences and satisfaction with the visiting scholar program. @*Results@#A total of 1,496 international scholars from 80 countries visited various surgical departments in 8 Korean hospitals between 2014 and 2018. The numbers have been on the increase over the years. Out of 355 visiting scholars in 2018, 71 replied to the online survey, of whom 52 were male and 19 female, and mostly in their 30s and 40s. Information about the program was accessed mostly through friends or colleagues (42.3%) and international conferences (36.6%). The commonest funding source was private (35.2%) and more than half stayed for less than 3 months. The visiting scholar’s main roles were mostly observation or participation in surgery and clinical research. All but 1 were satisfied with the program (98.6%) and would recommend it to friends and colleagues, although the language barrier was identified as an inconvenience. Those aged 20–39 years with governmental or institutional funding were associated with stays of more than 1 year. @*Conclusion@#The number of international visiting scholars at surgical departments in Korean hospitals has been on the increase with high satisfaction levels. Improvements need to be made on funding sources and lengthening visiting period to maximize the benefits of the program.
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Purpose@#Clinical rotations of medical students across the world have inevitably been affected due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The aims of this study were to explore medical students’ perception on the school’s response and management of clinical rotation during the COVID-19 pandemic and on how it had affected the quality of their education. @*Methods@#An online questionnaire was distributed to third year medical students at one institution whose clinical rotations re-started during the pandemic. The questions asked about the students’ satisfaction with the school’s policy and feelings of safety, and the impact of COVID-19 on clinical learning. @*Results@#The students’ perception on the school’s response to the pandemic was mixed. Re-commencement of the clinical rotations and procurement of personal protective equipment was positive but a third of students still felt unsafe. The decreased number of hospital patients did not seem to have impacted their overall clinical education with praise on the role of the supervising physicians. Seventy-six-point seven percent of students conferred the positive educational opportunities on medical professionalism presented to them only as the clinical rotation during the ongoing pandemic. @*Conclusion@#Our observations on the re-commencement of clerkship during this pandemic may help equip medical institutions on future public health crisis.
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OBJECTIVE: Red cell distribution width (RDW) is associated with mortality in patients with community- acquired pneumonia (CAP). However, little is known about the effect of changes in RDW during treatment on mortality. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the association between RDW changes and mortality in hospitalized patients with CAP. METHODS: Retrospective analyses were performed using medical records of patients hospitalized for CAP from April 2008 to February 2014. The abstracted laboratory values included RDW (from days one to four), clinical variables, and pneumonia severity index (PSI) scores. The ΔRDW(n-1) was defined as the change in RDW calculated as: (RDW(day1)-RDW(day-n))/RDW(day1)×100 (%), where ‘day n’ refers to hospital day. RESULTS: During the study period, a total of 1,069 patients were hospitalized for CAP. The 30-day mortality was 100/1,069 (9.4%). The median RDW at baseline was 14.1% (range, 11.1 to 30.2) and differed significantly between survivors and non-survivors (P<0.05). There were 470 patients with available serial RDW data (30-day mortality 58/470 [12.3%]). Of those, age, PSI score, blood urea nitrogen level, total protein concentration, albumin level, RDW at day 1, and the ΔRDW₄₋₁ differed significantly between survivors and non-survivors. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the significance of the relationship between ΔRDW₄₋₁ and 30-day mortality risk remained after adjusting for age, PSI score, RDW at day 1, total protein concentration, and initial albumin level. CONCLUSION: RDW change from day 1 to day 4 was an independent predictor of mortality in patients with CAP.