ABSTRACT
Introduction: The SARS-CoV2 pandemic impacted numerous aspects of medical practice, including continuingmedical education. In-person and single-institution educational formats could not address the challenges of socialdistancing, heterogeneous regional experiences, and continuously emerging data. The vulnerability of cancerpatients to SARS-CoV2 added further urgency to overcoming these barriers. To fulfill these unmet educational andpatient care needs, we established a novel cross-institutional trainee-driven, on-line collaborative for the purpose ofgenerating multidisciplinary seminars on emerging best practices for the acute management of patients with SARS-CoV2. Methods: The COVID Learning Initiative is currently managed by clinical trainees and faculty from 13 institutionsacross 10 states. Weekly Zoom conferences were led by a rotating team consisting of 2-3 fellows overseen by 4-5expert faculty from throughout the country. Format consisted of two 15-minute instructional segments presented bytrainees, followed by a concluding 30-minute faculty Q&A panel moderated by a trainee. Attendees completedbaseline demographics, SARS-CoV2 experience surveys, and pre/post conference knowledge questions.Conferences were recorded and archived to enhance access and dissemination of knowledge. Results: Within 6 weeks and beginning just 2 weeks after inception we produced five 1-hour-longmultidisciplinary video conferences covering emerging antiviral therapies, coagulopathy, pulmonary complications, provider resilience, and ethics of resource scarcity. On average, there were 100 participants per seminar. Post-conference questioning consistently demonstrated acquisition of knowledge across topics and disciplines. Attendeesalso improved in their self-assessed comfort managing multidisciplinary aspects of SARS-CoV2. Overall, presentingcollaborations involved 11 fellows and 28 faculty representing 6 medical specialties and 17 institutions. Severalcollaborations persisted, resulting in further dissemination of knowledge with tangible outcomes such as generationof peer-reviewed manuscripts. Conclusions: The COVID Learning Initiative demonstrated a novel continuing medical education platform capableof rapidly disseminating knowledge at a national scale, while realizing new opportunities for remote traineementoring and skills development. With initial feasibility and continued interest among participating institutions, COVID Learning Initiative plans to evolve to Fellows ACHIEVE: Alliance for Collaborative Hematology OncologyInter-Institutional Education through Videoconferencing to conduct an extended multi-institutional educational serieson adapting cancer management and training program best practices.