Distance Learning in Medical Education: COVID-19 Pandemic - Contingency Plan or a Paradigm Shift?

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected virtually all aspects of human life including the domain of education. All tiers of education are in a process of transition to the diverse modes of online teaching/distance learning. Certain geographic regions and areas of study are particularly vulnerable to these challenges. The countries with lower economic development have evident deficiencies in the Internet access, computer literacy and professional qualifications of teachers and students essential for successful implementation of online teaching forms. While certain specialties in higher education (less technologically dense) are still relatively well-off in terms of effectively shifting to distance learning, medical education with its technologically sensitive academic process faces major difficulties. This is especially true about teaching clinical sciences, where immediate supervision and attendance has been considered as a core requirement. By assessing own experiences and published data, it is our belief that the following steps should be made by nations (with the particular reference to low middle income countries) and institutions: 1. More thorough, robust and inclusive research should be done in order to reveal as many technically and “ideologically” fit solutions for ensuring the smooth transition to e-education; 2. Official authorities should think creatively while revising/determining the status of e-education, so that where possible, it may replace traditional modality of education in technically and legally organized ways and bureaucratic resistance has to be meaningfully minimized; 3. The governments need to obligate and incentivize HEIs for introducing realistic and comprehensive “contingency and business continuity plans” especially tailored to the requirements arising from global public health emergencies

Interplay of Different Parameters in COVID‐19 Infection and Novel Results of Possible Prevention and Treatment (Review of the Literature)

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and the resulting coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) remains a global challenge. There are intense studies for finding effective prevention and treatment options worldwide. Therefore, infection prevention, prognostic parameters of infection complication and identification of successful treatment protocols need more investigations.Interpretation of laboratory parameters may support clinicians in prevention and treatment of the disease, will improve COVID 19 infection outcomes and may potentially decrease the death rate overall.Study results have shown that different laboratory parameters during the disease course are significantly changed. In critically ill patients, coagulation complications and coagulation/anticoagulation imbalance are characteristic also. According to the research results, vaccination offers the best option for COVID-19 control.In this review, some parameters, current therapeutic options, preventive methods of COVID 19 infection are discussed