How the COVID-19 Pandemic Has Affected Cardiology Fellow Training

Medical Knowledge Acquisition during a Pandemic: Pediatric Subspecialty in-Training Examination and Board Certification Exam Passing Rate

OBJECTIVE

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in training programs restructuring their curricula. Fellowship programs are required to monitor each fellow's training progress through a combination of formal evaluations, competency tracking, and measures of knowledge acquisition. The American Board of Pediatrics administers subspecialty in-training examinations (SITE) to pediatric fellowship trainees annually and board certification exams at the completion of the fellowship. The objective of this study was to compare SITE scores and certification exam passing rates before and during the pandemic.

METHODS

In this retrospective observational study, we collected summative data on SITE scores and certification exam passing rates for all pediatric subspecialties from 2018 to 2022. Trends over time were assessed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis to test for trends across years within one group and t-test analysis to compare groups before and during the pandemic.

RESULTS

Data were obtained from 14 pediatric subspecialties. Comparing prepandemic to pandemic scores, Infectious Diseases, Cardiology, and Critical Care Medicine saw statistically significant decreases in SITE scores. Conversely, Child Abuse and Emergency Medicine saw increases in SITE scores. Emergency Medicine saw a statistically significant increase in certification exam passing rates, while Gastroenterology and Pulmonology saw decreases in exam passing rates.

CONCLUSIONS

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in restructuring didactics and clinical care based on the needs of the hospital. There were also societal changes affecting patients and trainees. Subspecialty programs with declining scores and certification exam passing rates may need to assess their educational and clinical programs and adapt to the needs of trainees' learning edges.

Reshaping care in the aftermath of the pandemic. Implications for cardiology health systems

In the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has undeniably changed everyday life and significantly reshaped the healthcare systems. Besides the direct effect on daily care leading to significant excess mortality, several collateral damages have been observed during the pandemic. The impact of the pandemic led to staff shortages, disrupted education, worse healthcare professional well-being, and a lack of proper clinical training and research. In this review we highlight the results of these important changes and how can the healthcare systems can adapt to prevent unprecedented events in case of future catastrophes.

Cardiovascular services in Covid-19 - Impact of the pandemic and lessons learned

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic immediately and perhaps irrevocably impacted society at large, the provision of cardiovascular (CV) care, the function and staffing of hospitals, and CV clinicians. Initially many clinicians at all career stages rose to the challenges, and support and accolades were the initial societal response. Politicization of the public health response as well as widespread misinformation and disinformation all negatively impacted CV clinicians' roles as well diminished and, in some cases, eliminated their public and self-esteem. Unabated stress, disrespect, and a likely lack of emotional and physical respite may all have contributed to the Great Resignation. Insights gained from review of the COVID-19 pandemic may help inform changes to foster system resiliency and prepare for an improved response to the inevitable next stressor.

[Perceptions of resident physicians on the development of the cardiology resident program during the COVID-19 pandemic in Lima, Peru]

Objective

To describe the perceptions of resident doctors about the development of their training program during the pandemic in the city of Lima - Peru.

Materials and methods

Through a cross-sectional study, a questionnaire was applied to seventy-eight cardiology residents in the last two years of training in the specialty. The perceptions about the accompaniment and support of the universities in the educational venues, for the development of the training program in cardiology during the pandemic, were evaluated.

Results

Regarding the support provided for their training, the items evaluated showed shortcomings above 60%, where permanent supervision was lacking in 90.0% of the residents. Regarding compliance with the rotations, the residents only received supervision in 24.4%, observing that they did not manage to carry out adequate rotations in 80.8% of the cases. The courses of the curricular plan were adequately developed in 92.5% of the cases, and the actions for the health of the resident were very low, highlighting that only in 9.0% of the cases did the university inquire about the state of health of the resident.

Conclusions

The development of the cardiology residency training program during the pandemic presented important shortcomings, showing that the deficiencies were accentuated compared to previous studies.

Electrophysiology and Interventional Cardiology Procedure Volumes During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has imposed an unprecedented health care crisis across the globe. Health care efforts across the world have been diverted to tackling the pandemic since early 2020. Hospitals and health care systems have undertaken major restructuring in an effort to deliver health care to an increasing number of patients affected by COVID-19. Although great focus has been placed on treating those individuals suffering from COVID-19, clinicians must simultaneously balance caring for patients who are not actively infected. In anticipation of an exponential increase in COVID-19 cases, health care systems developed strategies to channel available resources to meet the rapidly rising demands of COVID-19. This change was noticed significantly in the field of invasive cardiology as well. Many cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology (EP) laboratories canceled elective procedures to limit the burden on hospital resources and preserve personal protective equipment (PPE). Major societies published guidance statements delineating patient selection for procedures during the exponential phase of the pandemic growth. Patient care was triaged and those waiting for elective procedures were managed with expectant care or noninvasive approaches to preserve hospital resources and personnel. In the current article, we review the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its response to the volume of interventional cardiology (IC) and EP procedures across the world.