Virtual educational meetings and activities during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: Egyptian oncologists' experience.
Ecancermedicalscience
; 15: 1275, 2021.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1369660
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has had ramifications for most healthcare activities, including medical education and communication aspects. Virtual educational meetings and activities (VEMAs) have been utilised tremendously in the pandemic era, reflecting a transition to new horizons of cyberspace. This creates the need to explore possible challenges for the implementation of such services in the rapidly evolving field of oncology. The aim of our study is to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on VEMAs in the oncology community in Egypt. It focused on the evaluation of current attitudes, satisfaction and expectations of Egyptian oncologists during and beyond the COVID-19 era. The study is a cross-sectional study using a survey that was distributed through social media. It targeted Egyptian oncologists during the months of May and June 2020. A total of 118 participants completed the survey and most of them were younger than 35 years (71%). Most participants (93.2%) agreed that COVID-19 affected the stream of live medical educational meetings. About three-quarters of them attended VEMAs during the COVID-19 period compared to 50% prior to the pandemic. The majority reported that evening hours after 8 PM was the best time to attend VEMAs and 1 hour is the optimal duration for a virtual meeting. Although the COVID-19 pandemic appeared as an unprecedented challenge for medical education, it can be a catalyst for VEMAs, especially in a rapidly evolving field such as oncology. Further research is needed to assess whether learners are ready and willing to make greater use of online educational platforms and investigate the possible barriers and strategies to enhance their use.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Language:
English
Journal:
Ecancermedicalscience
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Ecancer.2021.1275
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS