Preparing for patients with high-consequence infectious diseases: Example of a high-level isolation unit.

INTRODUCTION: Patients with high-consequence infectious diseases (HCID) are rare in Western Europe. However, high-level isolation units (HLIU) must always be prepared for patient admission. Case fatality rates of HCID can be reduced by providing optimal intensive care management. We here describe a single centre's preparation, its embedding in the national context and the challenges we faced during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. METHODS: Ten team leaders organize monthly whole day trainings for a team of doctors and nurses from the HLIU focusing on intensive care medicine. Impact and relevance of training are assessed by a questionnaire and a perception survey, respectively. Furthermore, yearly exercises with several partner institutions are performed to cover different real-life scenarios. Exercises are evaluated by internal and external observers. Both training sessions and exercises are accompanied by intense feedback. RESULTS: From May 2017 monthly training sessions were held with a two-month and a seven-month break due to the first and second wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, respectively. Agreement with the statements of the questionnaire was higher after training compared to before training indicating a positive effect of training sessions on competence. Participants rated joint trainings for nurses and doctors at regular intervals as important. Numerous issues with potential for improvement were identified during post processing of exercises. Action plans for their improvement were drafted and as of now mostly implemented. The network of the permanent working group of competence and treatment centres for HCID (Ständiger Arbeitskreis der Kompetenz- und Behandlungszentren für Krankheiten durch hochpathogene Erreger (STAKOB)) at the Robert Koch-Institute (RKI) was strengthened throughout the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. DISCUSSION: Adequate preparation for the admission of patients with HCID is challenging. We show that joint regular trainings of doctors and nurses are appreciated and that training sessions may improve perceived skills. We also show that real-life scenario exercises may reveal additional deficits, which cannot be easily disclosed in training sessions. Although the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic interfered with our activities the enhanced cooperation among German HLIU during the pandemic ensured constant readiness for the admission of HCID patients to our or to collaborating HLIU. This is a single centre's experience, which may not be generalized to other centres. However, we believe that our work may address aspects that should be considered when preparing a unit for the admission of patients with HCID. These may then be adapted to the local situations.

Application of telemedicine in the COVID-19 epidemic: An analysis of Gansu Province in China.

This paper analyzes the application of various telemedicine services in Gansu Province, China during the COVID-19 epidemic, and summarizes the experiences with these services. In addition, the satisfaction levels of patients and doctors with the application of telemedicine in COVID-19 were investigated, the deficiencies of telemedicine in Gansu were determined, and recommendations for modification were proposed. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has broken out in China, and Gansu Province in Northwest of China has not been spared. To date, there are 91 local COVID-19 cases and 42 imported cases. 109 hospitals were selected as designated hospitals during the COVID-19 outbreak, and most of them were secondary hospitals. However, it was unsatisfactory that the ability of medical services is relatively low in most of secondary hospitals and primary hospitals. Therefore, we helped the secondary hospitals cope with COVID-19 by means of remote consultation, long-distance education, telemedicine question and answer (Q&A). Our practical experience shows that telemedicine can be widely used during the COVID-19 epidemic, especially in developing countries and areas with lagging medical standards.

What the COVID-19 Pandemic Can Teach Health Professionals About Continuing Professional Development.

The world's health care providers have realized that being agile in their thinking and growth in times of rapid change is paramount and that continuing education can be a key facet of the future of health care. As the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, educators at academic health centers are faced with a crucial question: How can continuing professional development (CPD) within teams and health systems be improved so that health care providers will be ready for the next disruption? How can new information about the next disruption be collected and disseminated so that interprofessional teams will be able to effectively and efficiently manage a new disease, new information, or new procedures and keep themselves safe? Unlike undergraduate and graduate/postgraduate education, CPD does not always have an identified educational home and has had uneven and limited innovation during the pandemic. In this commentary, the authors explore the barriers to change in this sector and propose 4 principles that may serve to guide a way forward: identifying a home for interprofessional continuing education at academic health centers, improving workplace-based learning, enhancing assessment for individuals within health care teams, and creating a culture of continuous learning that promotes population health.

A National Pediatric Telepsychiatry Curriculum for Graduate Medical Education and Continuing Medical Education.

Objectives: Our goal was to develop an open access nationally disseminated online curriculum for use in graduate and continuing medical education on the topic of pediatric telepsychiatry to enhance the uptake of telepsychiatry among child psychiatry training programs and improve access to mental health care for youth and families. Methods: Following Kern's 6-stage model of curriculum development, we identified a core problem, conducted a needs assessment, developed broad goals and measurable objectives in a competency-based model, and developed educational content and methods. The curriculum was reviewed by experts and feedback incorporated. Given the urgent need for such a curriculum due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the curriculum was immediately posted on the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training websites. Further evaluation will be conducted over the next year. Results: The curriculum covers the six areas of core competence adapted for pediatric telepsychiatry and includes teaching content and resources, evaluation tools, and information about other resources. Conclusion: This online curriculum is available online and provides an important resource and set of standards for pediatric telepsychiatry training. Its online format allows for ongoing revision as the telepsychiatry landscape changes.

Siamit: A Novel Academic-Tribal Health Partnership in Northwest Alaska.

PROBLEM: American Indians and Alaska Natives hold a state-conferred right to health, yet significant health and health care disparities persist. Academic medical centers are resource-rich institutions committed to public service, yet few are engaged in responsive, equitable, and lasting tribal health partnerships to address these challenges. APPROACH: Maniilaq Association, a rural and remote tribal health organization in Northwest Alaska, partnered with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School to address health care needs through physician staffing, training, and quality improvement initiatives. This partnership, called Siamit, falls under tribal governance, focuses on supporting community health leaders, addresses challenges shaped by extreme geographic remoteness, and advances the mission of academic medicine in the context of tribal health priorities. OUTCOMES: Throughout the 2019-2020 academic year, Siamit augmented local physician staffing, mentored health professions trainees, provided continuing medical education courses, implemented quality improvement initiatives, and provided clinical care and operational support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Siamit began with a small budget and limited human resources, demonstrating that relatively small investments in academic-tribal health partnerships can support meaningful and positive outcomes. NEXT STEPS: During the 2020-2021 academic year, the authors plan to expand Siamit's efforts with a broader social medicine curriculum, additional attending staff, more frequent trainee rotations, an increasingly robust mentorship network for Indigenous health professions trainees, and further study of the impact of these efforts. Such partnerships may be replicable in other settings and represent a significant opportunity to advance community health priorities, strengthen tribal health systems, support the next generation of Indigenous health leaders, and carry out the academic medicine mission of teaching, research, and service.

Making Doctors Effective Managers and Leaders: A Matter of Health and Well-Being.

The COVID-19 crisis has forced physicians to make daily decisions that require knowledge and skills they did not acquire as part of their biomedical training. Physicians are being called upon to be both managers-able to set processes and structures-and leaders-capable of creating vision and inspiring action. Although these skills may have been previously considered as just nice to have, they are now as central to being a physician as physiology and biochemistry. While traditionally only selected physicians have received management training, either through executive or joint degree programs, the authors argue that the pandemic has highlighted the importance of all physicians learning management and leadership skills. Training should emphasize skills related to interpersonal management, systems management, and communication and planning; be seamlessly integrated into the medical curriculum alongside existing content; and be delivered by existing faculty with leadership experience. While leadership programs, such as the Pediatric Leadership for the Underserved program at the University of California, San Francisco, and the Clinical Process Improvement Leadership Program at Mass General Brigham, may include project work, instruction by clinical leaders, and content delivered over time, examples of leadership training that seamlessly blend biomedical and management training are lacking. The authors present the Leader and Leadership Education and Development curriculum used at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, which is woven through 4 years of medical school, as an example of leadership training that approximates many of the principles espoused here. The COVID-19 pandemic has stretched the logistical capabilities of health care systems and the entire United States, revealing that management and leadership skills-often viewed as soft skills-are a matter of life and death. Training all physicians in these skills will improve patient care, the well-being of the health care workforce, and health across the United States.

[There is no progress without school. Postgraduate specialization school completes the paradigm shift in palliative care.] / Non c'è progresso senza scuola. La Scuola di specializzazione completa il cambio di paradigma delle cure palliative.

With the conversion of law decree no. 34 of 19 May 2020, bearing urgent measures concerning health, support to work and the economy, as well as social policies related to CoViD-19 epidemiological emergency, thanks to the approval of an amendment to legislative decree "Rilancio" signed by Giorgio Trizzino, the Specialization school in medicine and palliative care will be established starting from a.y. 2021-2022. Additionally, a course in pediatric palliative care will be introduced in pediatrics specialization schools. The news has been welcomed with enthusiasm by the scientific community and the main stakeholders, some of which have made a strong contribution to this result: the Italian Society for Palliative Care, the Italian Federation for Palliative Care, the Maruzza Levebvre d'Ovidio Foundation, as well as the many professionals, institutions, and NPOs that have been supporting for the past forty years the progress of palliative care in Italy. An assessment of the impact of such a measure and its effects entails due process and contextualization in different areas: first of all, that of demand and current supply, followed by the historical-cultural, the social, and the normative.

Pedagogical foundations to online lectures in health professions education.

Professional and tertiary health professions education (HPE) has been markedly challenged by the current novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Mandates for training organisations to reduce social contact during the global pandemic, and make learning available online, provide an opportunity for regional, rural and remote clinicians and students to more easily access learning and professional development opportunities. Online lectures, while posing an opportunity for regional, rural and remote HPE, entail potential risks. Educators who are familiar with face-to-face pedagogies may find a transition to remote, digital interaction unfamiliar, disarming, and therefore they may not design maximally engaging lectures. The strategies used in a face-to-face lecture cannot be directly transferred into the online environment. This article proposes strategies to ensure the ongoing effectiveness, efficiency and engagement of lectures transitioning from face-to-face to online delivery. Cognitive learning theory, strategies to promote learner engagement and minimise distraction, and examples of software affordances to support active learning during the lecture are proposed. This enables lecturers to navigate the challenges of lecturing in an online environment and plan fruitful online lectures during this disruptive time. These suggestions will therefore enable HPE to better meet the existing and future needs of regional, rural and remote learners who may not be able to easily access face-to-face learning upon the relaxation of social distancing measures. Strategies to provide equitable HPE to learners who cannot access plentiful, fast internet are also discussed.

Interactive pedagogical tools could be helpful for medical education continuity during COVID-19 outbreak.

Training and education are essential for medical students. During the COVID-19 outbreak, numerous schools and universities have had to close. Ensuring pedagogical continuity requires alternatives to the traditional classroom, especially in medical education. Usual distance learning tools such as videos and downloadable handouts are not sufficient to promote efficient teaching. Distance learning requires self-motivation and does not give you direct access to your instructor. Some students fear the loss of human contact with an instructor - like asking questions during and after class - which promotes learning, understanding and communication. Moreover, classical distance learning methods do not offer immediate feedback that can help students in their understanding of the lecture. In this context, interactive pedagogic tools (IPT) could be useful for medical education continuity and for maintaining human contact necessary in pedagogy. We briefly evaluated interactive pedagogic tool compared to traditionnal distancial tools on medical students. This study showed the importance to have direct contact with a teacher and feedback during a lecture and to not exclusively perform distance learning without direct interaction and feedback. Hence, in the present context, we encourage teacher to use this type of tools to maintain direct interaction with students - which is essential in pedagogy - and ensure a qualitative pedagogical continuity.

[Basic aspects of organizing medical training in the context of a coronavirus pandemic].

The article discusses the changes made to the existing procedure for continuing medical education and the accreditation of medical workers due to a pandemic that began with the outbreak of coronavirus infection COVID-19 in early 2020. Under current circumstances, medical organizations encountered difficulties in organizing quarantine, purchasing disinfecting drugs, personal protective equipment and additional medical equipment, the need to introduce an emergency mode of work for employees, so there was a need to review and develop new rules for the work of medical workers during a coronavirus pandemic. Medicine is one of the progressive fields of scientific and entrepreneurial activity, making high demands on medical workers. Therefore, continuous training of doctors and medical personnel is caused by vital necessity, especially in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. Currently, the legislative level provides for the re-profiling of doctors of other specialties and the involvement of teachers and general medical organizations in the fight against coronavirus infection. In the face of the threat of the spread of coronavirus infection, on the recommendation of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, it was decided to transfer educational institutions to distance learning using educational technologies, which also requires great efforts on the part of doctors, as medical specialists need not only a large amount of theoretical knowledge , but also a sufficient number of practical skills. The article presents statistical and analytical data, the results of surveys of Russian doctors, expert estimates that allow us to draw conclusions regarding the effectiveness of educational programs and courses for the professional retraining of doctors in the context of a coronavirus pandemic.

Impact of COVID-19 on medical education: introducing homo digitalis.

PURPOSE: To determine how members of the Société Internationale d'Urologie (SIU) are continuing their education in the time of COVID-19. METHODS: A survey was disseminated amongst SIU members worldwide by email. Results were analyzed to examine the influence of age, practice region and settings on continuing medical education (CME) of the respondents. RESULTS: In total, 2494 respondents completed the survey. Internet searching was the most common method of CME (76%; all ps < 0.001), followed by searching journals and textbook including the online versions (62%; all ps < 0.001). Overall, 6% of the respondents reported no time/interest for CME during the pandemic. Although most urologists report using only one platform for their CME (26.6%), the majority reported using ≥ 2 platforms, with approximately 10% of the respondents using up to 5 different platforms. Urologists < 40 years old were more likely to use online literature (69%), podcasts/AV media (38%), online CME courses/webinars (40%), and social media (39%). There were regional variations in the CME modality used but no significant difference in the number of methods by region. There was no significant difference in responses between urologists in academic/public hospitals or private practice. CONCLUSION: During COVID-19, urologists have used web-based learning for their CME. Internet learning and literature were the top frequently cited learning methods. Younger urologists are more likely to use all forms of digital learning methods, while older urologists prefer fewer methods.

The Balanced Opioid Initiative: protocol for a clustered, sequential, multiple-assignment randomized trial to construct an adaptive implementation strategy to improve guideline-concordant opioid prescribing in primary care.

BACKGROUND: Rates of opioid prescribing tripled in the USA between 1999 and 2015 and were associated with significant increases in opioid misuse and overdose death. Roughly half of all opioids are prescribed in primary care. Although clinical guidelines describe recommended opioid prescribing practices, implementing these guidelines in a way that balances safety and effectiveness vs. risk remains a challenge. The literature offers little help about which implementation strategies work best in different clinical settings or how strategies could be tailored to optimize their effectiveness in different contexts. Systems consultation consists of (1) educational/engagement meetings with audit and feedback reports, (2) practice facilitation, and (3) prescriber peer consulting. The study is designed to discover the most cost-effective sequence and combination of strategies for improving opioid prescribing practices in diverse primary care clinics. METHODS/DESIGN: The study is a hybrid type 3 clustered, sequential, multiple-assignment randomized trial (SMART) that randomizes clinics from two health systems at two points, months 3 and 9, of a 21-month intervention. Clinics are provided one of four sequences of implementation strategies: a condition consisting of educational/engagement meetings and audit and feedback alone (EM/AF), EM/AF plus practice facilitation (PF), EM/AF + prescriber peer consulting (PPC), and EM/AF + PF + PPC. The study's primary outcome is morphine-milligram equivalent (MME) dose by prescribing clinicians within clinics. The study's primary aim is the comparison of EM/AF + PF + PPC versus EM/AF alone on change in MME from month 3 to month 21. The secondary aim is to derive cost estimates for each of the four sequences and compare them. The exploratory aim is to examine four tailoring variables that can be used to construct an adaptive implementation strategy to meet the needs of different primary care clinics. DISCUSSION: Systems consultation is a practical blend of implementation strategies used in this case to improve opioid prescribing practices in primary care. The blend offers a range of strategies in sequences from minimally to substantially intensive. The results of this study promise to help us understand how to cost effectively improve the implementation of evidence-based practices. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT04044521 (ClinicalTrials.gov). Registered 05 August 2019.