Creation of an Interactive Virtual Surgical Rotation for Undergraduate Medical Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objective: During the coronavirus 2019 pandemic, medical student involvement in direct patient care has been severely limited. Rotations mandatory not only for core curricula but also for informing decisions regarding specialty choice have been postponed during a critical window in the application cycle. Existing virtual rotations are largely observational or lack patient-facing components.

Setting: A virtual Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery rotation at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was implemented for medical students, comprising interactive live-streamed surgeries, outpatient telehealth visits, and virtual small group didactics.

Results: Medical students enrolled in the virtual surgical rotation were able to engage with attending surgeons and operating room staff while remotely viewing surgical procedures captured with first-person audiovisual technology. Students participated in several different aspects of care delivery in both the inpatient and outpatient setting, similar to their typical responsibilities of an in-person rotation.

Conclusions: The authors will continue to develop the virtual surgical education methodology to further disseminate an interactive video-based medical student elective to other procedural specialties and institutions.

Keywords: COVID-19; surgical video capture; telemedicine; undergraduate medical education; virtual surgical education.