Teaching in the age of COVID-19: Teaching with tech while socially distancing
With the arrival of SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19) in North America, programs are facing the need to reconsider how they deliver didactic education to their learners. The ACGME only allows for 20% of the curriculum to be delivered in an asynchronous fashion. The remainder is delivered through traditional didactic means, including “small-group sessions, such as break-out groups, serially repeated conference sessions, practicum sessions, or large-group planned educational activities.” With mandatory social distancing likely to become standard practice, we present multiple solutions to bridge the gap between live, in-person conferences and asynchronous materials.
With the arrival of a new decade, the ALiEM team has gotten quite reflective. Our last readership survey was in 2015 and it’s time for another check-in. We can track many things through Google Analytics, but there’s nothing like hearing from you directly to help us shape the upcoming year, 5 years, and 10 years. Your input is incredibly helpful to help us. We want to tailor our priorities to what YOU want. We are a volunteer organization, made up of passionate, early-adopting educators. Help us stay focused on what makes ALiEM special, helpful, and meaningful to you.
In many parts of the world, emergency medicine is just beginning to emerge as a specialty. In Pakistan, for example, it was introduced as recently as 2012. Hands-on training in the management of critically-ill medical and trauma patients is imperative for adequate preparation of board-certified emergency physicians, but accurate simulation can be hard to come by in developing nations. There are very few training programs and dedicated centers for healthcare professionals, and even fewer that have simulation [1]. High-tech simulation equipment is often cost-prohibitive; a mobile, low-tech simulation lab could potentially address the need for advanced training in resuscitation for emergency physicians training in under-resourced hospitals.