The perceived impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on medical student education and training – an international survey

Abstract: Background: The Covid-19 pandemic led to significant changes and disruptions to medical education worldwide. We evaluated medical student perceived views on training, their experiences and changes to teaching methods during the pandemic. Methods: An online survey of medical students was conducted in the Autumn of 2020. An international network of collaborators facilitated participant recruitment. Students were surveyed on their perceived overall impact of Covid-19 on their training and several exposure variables. Univariate analyses and adjusted multivariable analysis were performed to determine strengths in associations. Results: A total of 1604 eligible participants from 45 countries took part in this survey and 56.3% (n = 860) of these were female. The median age was 21 (Inter Quartile Range:21–23). Nearly half (49.6%, n = 796) of medical students were in their clinical years. The majority (n = 1356, 84.5%) were residents of a low or middle income country. A total of 1305 (81.4%) participants reported that the Covid-19 pandemic had an overall negative impact on their training. On adjusted analysis, being 21 or younger, females, those reporting a decline in conventional lectures and ward based teaching were more likely to report an overall negative impact on their training (p ≤ 0.001). However, an increase in clinical responsibilities was associated with lower odds of participants reporting a negative impact on training (p < 0.001). The participant’s resident nation economy and stage of training were associated with some of the participant training experiences surveyed (p < 0.05). Conclusion: An international cohort of medical students reported an overall significant negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their undergraduate training. The efficacy of novel virtual methods of teaching to supplement traditional teaching methods warrants further research

Email Dataset for Automatic Response Suggestion within a University

<p> </p> <p>We have developed an application and solution approach (using this dataset) for automatically generating and suggesting short email responses to support queries in a university environment. Our proposed solution can be used as one tap or one click solution for responding to various types of queries raised by faculty members and students in a university. Office of Academic Affairs (OAA), Office of Student Life (OSL) and Information Technology Helpdesk (ITD) are support functions within a university which receives hundreds of email messages on the daily basis. Email communication is still the most frequently used mode of communication by these departments. A large percentage of emails received by these departments are frequent and commonly used queries or request for information. Responding to every query by manually typing is a tedious and time consuming task. Furthermore a large percentage of emails and their responses are consists of short messages. For example, an IT support department in our university receives several emails on Wi-Fi not working or someone needing help with a projector or requires an HDMI cable or remote slide changer. Another example is emails from students requesting the office of academic affairs to add and drop courses which they cannot do it directly. The dataset consists of emails messages which are generally received by ITD, OAA and OSL in Ashoka University. The dataset also contains intermediate results while conducting machine learning experiments. </p

The perceived global impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on doctors’ medical and surgical training: an international survey

Introduction The COVID‐19 pandemic has resulted in a significant burden on healthcare systems causing disruption to medical and surgical training of doctors globally. Aims and objectives This is the first international survey assessing the perceived impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on training of doctors of all grades and specialties. Methods An online global survey was disseminated using Survey Monkey® between 4th August 2020 and 17th November 2020. A global network of collaborators facilitated participant recruitment. Data was collated anonymously with informed consent and analysed using univariate and adjusted multivariable analysis. Results 743 doctors of median age 27 (IQR: 25‐30) were included with the majority (56.8%, n=422) being male. Two‐thirds of doctors were in a training post (66.5%, n=494), 52.9% (n=393) in a surgical specialty and 53.0% (n= 394) in low‐ and middle‐income countries. Sixty‐nine point two percent (n=514) reported an overall perceived negative impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on their training. A significant decline was noted among non‐virtual teaching methods such as face‐to‐face lectures, tutorials, ward‐based teaching, theatre sessions, conferences, simulation sessions and morbidity and mortality meetings (p≤0.05). Low or middle‐income country doctors’ training was associated with perceived inadequate supervision while performing invasive procedures under general, local or regional anaesthetic. (p≤0.05) Conclusion In addition to the detrimental impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on healthcare infrastructure, this international survey reports a widespread perceived overall negative impact on medical and surgical doctors’ training globally. Ongoing adaptation and innovation will be required to enhance the approach to doctors’ training and learning in order to ultimately improve patient care

Evaluating the effect of measles and rubella mass vaccination campaigns on seroprevalence in India: a before-and-after cross-sectional household serosurvey in four districts, 2018-2020

BACKGROUND: India did phased measles-rubella supplementary immunisation activities (MR-SIAs; ie, mass-immunisation campaigns) targeting children aged 9 months to less than 15 years. We estimated measles-rubella seroprevalence before and after the MR-SIAs to quantify the effect on population immunity and identify remaining immunity gaps. METHODS: Between March 9, 2018 and March 19, 2020 we did community-based, cross-sectional serosurveys in four districts in India before and after MR-SIAs. 30 villages or wards were selected within each district, and one census enumeration block from each was selected as the survey cluster. Households were enumerated and 13 children in the younger age group (9 months to <5 years) and 13 children in the older ager group (5 to <15 years) were randomly selected by use of computer-generated random numbers. Serum samples were tested for IgG antibodies to measles and rubella viruses by enzyme immunoassay. FINDINGS: Specimens were collected from 2570 children before the MR-SIA and from 2619 children afterwards. The weighted MR-SIA coverage ranged from 73·7% to 90·5% in younger children and from 73·6% to 93·6% in older children. Before the MR-SIA, district-level measles seroprevalence was between 80·7% and 88·5% among younger children in all districts, and between 63·4% and 84·5% among older children. After the MR-SIA, measles seroprevalence among younger children increased to more than 90% (range 91·5 to 96·0) in all districts except Kanpur Nagar, in which it remained unchanged 80·4%. Among older children, measles seroprevalence increased to more than 90·0% (range 93·7% to 96·5%) in all districts except Hoshiarpur (88·7%). A significant increase in rubella seroprevalence was observed in all districts in both age groups, with the largest effect in Dibrugarh, where rubella seroprevalence increased from 10·6% to 96·5% among younger children. INTERPRETATION: Measles-rubella seroprevalence increased substantially after the MR-SIAs but the serosurvey also identified remaining gaps in population immunity. FUNDING: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Indian Council of Medical Research