ABSTRACT
Background Traditionally Grand Rounds (GR) speakers at academic institutions tend to be local senior academic faculty. Inclusion of Early Career (EC) speakers in GR is not a common practice. At the time of academic promotion EC are often required to show evidence of national visibility and recognition. The virtual GR model we adopted when COVID pandemic began provided an opportunity to include EC speakers from within and outside universities in our academic Cardiovascular Grand Rounds. We hypothesized that EC will find virtual presentations attractive since it does not involve travel and time away from family or work. Methods Starting in January 2020, we began inviting EC Cardiology faculty from within our university as well as outside institutions to present at our weekly virtual GR (45-minute-long sessions). Potential speakers were identified through professional contacts, ACC EC Section and environmental scanning (authors of important scientific publications). We were unable to offer honoraria to our speakers. Sessions were advertised through social media (Twitter) from October 2021. Results Our 3 year experience from January 2020 to September 2022 is described. A total of 112 Virtual Cardiovascular GR sessions were held during this period. 56 sessions featured EC faculty speakers (50% of total). 40/56 EC speakers were from outside institutions (71%) and 16/56 were local from our institution (29%). Overall, the virtual GR model resulted in 79/112 (71%) of our speakers to be faculty from outside our university. These sessions were well received by GR attendees. Invited EC faculty speakers were enthusiastic and appreciated the opportunity to speak. The long-range benefit for EC speakers towards academic promotion remains to be established through follow-up. Conclusion Our 3 year experience serves as a best practice model for the inclusion of EC speakers in virtual GR. The quality of GR or audience evaluations were not negatively impacted by this model. Identifying suitable speakers from outside institutions required diligence and ongoing efforts. A national clearing house of suitable EC speaker names through ACC Sections (Early Career and Academic Sections) could be a beneficial future step.Copyright © 2023 American College of Cardiology Foundation