During the Pandemic, Online Lecture Series Helps Fill Gaps in Training for Urology Residents

September 9, 2020 – The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has affected all aspects of healthcare – including sharp drops in educational opportunities for resident physicians in training. In response, urology training programs across the United States joined forces to develop a multi-institutional online video lecture collaboration, according to a special article in Urology Practice, an Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

Called “Urology Collaborative Online Video Didactics” – Urology COViD for short – the online lecture series has been a runaway success in the urology world, with thousands of views and overwhelmingly positive reviews from trainees and educators. Lindsay A. Hampson, Assistant Professor of Urology at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and colleagues share their experience with the development and initial evaluation of the groundbreaking lecture series.

Urology Programs Team Up to Replace Educational Opportunities Lost to Coronavirus

An overlooked effect of drastic declines in routine clinical care has been the loss of invaluable training opportunities for resident physicians. This may be especially true in surgical specialties such as urology, as many hospitals have only recently started to resume operations other than emergency or urgent surgery.

Spurred by an example from another surgical subspecialty (otolaryngology), the urology residents at UCSF brought the idea to Dr. Hampson. The following day Dr. Hampson conceptualized Urology COViD and reached out to program directors at eight academic training programs: UCSF, University of Washington, University of California–Davis, Stanford University, University of Minnesota, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, and University of Virginia. There was immediate buy-in, with programs across the country facing the same issues with how to train residents during decreased clinical volume and changing educational contexts.

Within a week the UCSF team had created a new website (https://urologycovid.ucsf.edu/) and launched Urology COViD as a “urology-specific collaborative didactic series.” Almost immediately, there was a significant influx of collaborating programs from across the country; by the end of the first week of lectures, volunteer faculty had filled all 84 available lecture slots. The following week, a month-long waiting list was filled.

Consisting of a 45-minute lecture followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer session, lectures are delivered live over the Zoom platform in webinar format, including interactive features. All lectures are subsequently posted on the website for viewing via YouTube.

By any measure, Urology COViD has been a smashing success, with lectures delivered by faculty from 35 institutions.  The twice-daily webinars have been seen by an average of more than 470 viewers live on Zoom. Within the first two weeks, there were more than 7,000 views of the lecture recordings on YouTube.

More than 90 percent of users leaving feedback on the lecture series and videos have left above average or excellent ratings. More than 80 percent said the series provided a sense of “community connectedness” during a time of social isolation. “All (100 percent) of the viewers surveyed in this study indicated that they would like to see the series continue into the future,” the researchers write.

Urology COViD is resuming in September and is expected to provide continued educational opportunities even after the pandemic ends. “There will be a time in the future when we are back in the operating rooms, clinics and lecture halls,” Dr. Hampson and colleagues conclude. “We hope that this series can evolve and persist so that these new collaborative educational efforts can outlast the pandemic and continue to provide a source of shared knowledge, resident teaching, and community building for our diverse field.”

Click here to read “Multi-Institutional Collaborative Resident Education in the Era of COVID-19.”

DOI: 10.1097/UPJ.0000000000000158

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About Urology Practice

An Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA), Urology Practice focuses on clinical trends, challenges and practice applications in the four areas of Business, Health Policy, the Specialty and Patient Care. Information that can be used in everyday practice will be provided to the urology community via peer-reviewed clinical practice articles (including best practices, reviews, clinical guidelines, select clinical trials, editorials and white papers), “research letters” (brief original studies with an important clinical message), the business of the practice of urology, urology health policy issues, urology education and training, as well as content for urology care team members.

About the American Urological Association

Founded in 1902 and headquartered near Baltimore, Maryland, the American Urological Association is a leading advocate for the specialty of urology, and has more than 23,000 members throughout the world. The AUA is a premier urologic association, providing invaluable support to the urologic community as it pursues its mission of fostering the highest standards of urologic care through education, research and the formulation of health care policy. To learn more about the AUA visit: www.auanet.org

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the clinicians, nurses, accountants, lawyers, and tax, finance, audit, risk, compliance, and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with advanced technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2019 annual revenues of €4.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

Wolters Kluwer provides trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers and students with advanced clinical decision support, learning and research and clinical intelligence. For more information about our solutions, visit https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/health and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WKHealth.

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