Beyond business as usual: Radiology residency educational response to the COVID-2019 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted standard hospital operations and diagnostic radiology resident education at academic medical centers across the country. Deferment of elective surgeries and procedures coupled with a shift of resources toward increased inpatient clinical needs for the care of COVID-19 patients has resulted in substantially decreased imaging examinations at many institutions. Additionally, both infection control and risk mitigation measures have resulted in minimal on-site staffing of both trainees and staff radiologists at many institutions. As a result, residents have been placed in nonstandard learning environments, including working from home, engaging in a virtual curriculum, and participating in training sessions in preparation for potential reassignment to other patient care settings. Typically, for residents to gain the necessary knowledge, skills, and experience to practice independently upon graduation, radiology training programs must provide an optimal balance between resident education and clinical obligations. We describe our experience adapting to the challenges in educational interruptions and clinical work reassignments of 41 interventional and diagnostic radiology residents at a large academic center. We highlight opportunities for collaboration and teamwork in creatively adjusting and planning for the short and long-term impact of the pandemic on resident education. This experience shows how the residency educational paradigm was shifted during a pandemic and can serve as a template to address future disruptions.

Trainee and Attending Perspectives on Remote Radiology Readouts in the Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Social distancing mandates due to COVID-19 have necessitated adaptations to radiology trainee workflow and educational practices, including the radiology "readout." We describe how a large academic radiology department achieved socially distant "remote readouts," provide trainee and attending perspectives on this early experience, and propose ways by which "remote readouts" can be used effectively by training programs beyond COVID-19. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Beginning March 2020, radiologists were relocated to workspaces outside of conventional reading rooms. Information technologies were employed to allow for "remote readouts" between trainees and attendings. An optional anonymous open-ended survey regarding remote readouts was administered to radiology trainees and attendings as a quality improvement initiative. From the responses, response themes were abstracted using thematic analysis. Descriptive statistics of the qualitative data were calculated. RESULTS: Radiologist workstations from 14 traditional reading rooms were relocated to 36 workspaces across the hospital system. Two models of remote readouts, synchronous and asynchronous, were developed, facilitated by commercially available information technologies. Thirty-nine of 105 (37%) trainees and 42 of 90 (47%) attendings responded to the survey. Main response themes included: social distancing, technology, autonomy/competency, efficiency, education/feedback and atmosphere/professional relationship. One hundred and forty-eight positive versus 97 negative comments were reported. Social distancing, technology, and autonomy/competency were most positively rated. Trainees and attending perspectives differed regarding the efficiency of remote readouts. CONCLUSION: "Remote readouts," compliant with social distancing measures, are feasible in academic radiology practice settings. Perspectives from our initial experience provide insight into how this can be accomplished, opportunities for improvement and future application, beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.