Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiology fellow echocardiography education at a large academic center.
BMC Med Educ
; 22(1): 863, 2022 Dec 13.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2162356
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
In response to COVID-19 pandemic state restrictions, our institution deferred elective procedures from 3/15/2020 to 6/13/2020, and removed cardiology fellows from the echocardiography rotation to staff clinical services. We assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on fellow education and echocardiography volumes.METHODS:
Our institutional database was used to examine volumes of transthoracic (TTE), stress (SE), and transesophageal echocardiograms (TEE) from 7/1/2018 to 10/10/2020. Study volumes were compared in three intervals pre-pandemic (7/1/2018- 3/14/2020), pandemic (3/15/2020-6/13/2020), and pandemic recovery (6/14/2020-10/10/2020). We examined weekly number of TTEs performed or interpreted by cardiology fellows during the study period, and compared these to the two previous academic years.RESULTS:
Weekly TTE volume declined by 54% during the pandemic, and increased by 99% during pandemic recovery, (p < 0.05). SE and TEE revealed similar trends. A strong correlation between weekly TTE volume and inpatient admissions was observed during the study period (rs=0.67, p < 0.05). Weekly fellow TTE scans declined by 78% during the pandemic, with a 380% increase during pandemic recovery (p < 0.05). Weekly fellow TTE interpretations declined by 56% during the pandemic, with a 76% increase during pandemic recovery (p < 0.05).CONCLUSION:
COVID restrictions between 3/15/2020- 6/14/2020 coincided with a marked decline in TTE, SE, and TEE volumes, with an increase similar to near pre-pandemic volumes during the pandemic recovery period. A similar decline with the onset of COVID restrictions, and increase to pre-restriction volumes thereafter was observed with fellow scans and interpretations, but total academic year fellow training volumes remained depressed. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and rise of multiple variants, training programs may need to adjust fellows' clinical responsibilities so as to support achievement of echocardiography training certification.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Cardiology
/
COVID-19
/
Internship and Residency
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Variants
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
BMC Med Educ
Journal subject:
Education
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S12909-022-03880-z
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