ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Increasing clinical demands can adversely impact academic advancement, including the ability to deliver lectures and disseminate scholarly work. The virtual lecture platform became mainstream during the height of the coronavirus-19 pandemic. Lessons learned from this period may offer insight into supporting academic productivity among physicians who must balance multiple demands, including high clinical workloads and family care responsibilities. We evaluated perceptions on delivering virtual lectures to determine whether virtual venues merit continuation beyond the pandemic's initial phase and whether these perceptions differ by gender and rank. METHODS: In a survey study, faculty who spoke in 1 of 3 virtual lecture programs in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Otolaryngology, and Radiology at a university hospital in 2020 to 2022 were queried about their experience. Speakers' motivations to lecture virtually and the perceived advantages and disadvantages of virtual and in-person lectures were analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative analyses. RESULTS: Seventy-two of 95 (76%) faculty members responded (40% women, 38% men, and 22% gender undisclosed). Virtual lectures supported the speakers "a lot" to "extremely" with the following goals: enhancing one's reputation and credibility (76%), networking (70%), receiving feedback (63%), and advancing prospects for promotion (59%). Virtual programs also increased the speakers' sense of accomplishment (70%) and professional optimism (61%) by at least "a lot," including instructors and assistant professors who previously had difficulty obtaining invitations to speak outside their institution. Many respondents had declined prior invitations to speak in-person due to clinical workload (66%) and family care responsibilities (58%). Previous opportunities to lecture in-person were also refused due to finances (39%), teaching (26%), and research (19%) requirements, personal medical conditions or disabilities (9%), and religious obligations (5%). Promotion was a stronger motivating factor to lecture virtually for instructors and assistant professors than for associate and full professors. By contrast, disseminating work and ideas was a stronger motivator for associate and full professors. Associate and full professors also reported greater improvement in work-related well-being than earlier career faculty from the virtual lecture experience. Very few differences were found by gender. CONCLUSIONS: Virtual lecture programs support faculty who might not otherwise have the opportunity to lecture in-person due to multiple constraints. To increase the dissemination of scholarly work and expand opportunities to all faculty, virtual lectures should continue even as in-person venues are reestablished.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The neurotropism of SARS-CoV-2 and the consequential damage to the olfactory system have been proposed as one of the possible underlying causes of olfactory dysfunction in COVID-19. We aimed to aggregate the results of the studies which reported imaging of the olfactory system of patients with COVID-19 versus controls. METHODS: PubMed and EMBASE were searched to identify relevant literature reporting the structural imaging characteristics of the olfactory bulb (OB), olfactory cleft, olfactory sulcus (OS), or olfactory tract in COVID-19 patients. Hedge's g and weighted mean difference were used as a measure of effect size. Quality assessment, subgroup analyses, meta-regression, and sensitivity analysis were also conducted. RESULTS: Ten studies were included in the qualitative synthesis, out of which seven studies with 183 cases with COVID-19 and 308 controls without COVID-19 were enrolled in the quantitative synthesis. No significant differences were detected in analyses of right OB volume and left OB volume. Likewise, right OS depth and left OS depth were also not significantly different in COVID-19 cases compared to non-COVID-19 controls. Also, we performed subgroup analysis, meta-regression, and sensitivity analysis to investigate the potential effect of confounding moderators. CONCLUSION: The findings of this review did not confirm alterations in structural imaging of the olfactory system, including OB volume and OS depth by Covid-19 which is consistent with the results of recent histopathological evaluations.
ABSTRACT
Visiting Professorships (VPs) have significant benefits for both the guest lecturer and host institution. Such opportunities increase knowledge dissemination, research collaboration, opportunities for junior faculty members, and educational material that shores up perceived weaknesses in the host institution's training program. While VPs provide these benefits, such invitations are often costly due to travel and accommodation expenses, which can be challenging for host institutions. The COVID-19 pandemic - with the forced social and work distancing - has mandated that radiologists rethink how they interact and collaborate within their department and also within the larger medical and radiology communities. Virtual platforms have become critical for communication and education, and in this altered academic environment have provided an opportunity for us to redesign how VPs are designed. The virtual VP removes many of the cost and time burdens associated with travel and even enables greater communication where it might not have been economically or time-feasible. We present a virtual Microsoft Teams (Redmond, WA) based platform for facilitating VPs in all subspecialties and for all ranks called the Radiology Lecture Exchange.