No abstract

No abstract

UNSTRUCTURED COVID-19 has changed the landscape of medical education and it has brought virtual teaching to the forefront. As fifth year medical students studying at University College London (UCL), we understand the importance of virtual teaching in medical education and therefore we commend Wilcha for carrying out a systematic review to analyse its strengths and weaknesses. However, we would like to discuss a criticism we have of the literature search that was conducted. We believe the key terms used were too narrow. Subsequently, this has limited the amount of literature which was reviewed, the content of the review and the reliability of the studies used.

Boyle et al. discuss the development and implementation of a Virtual Objective Structured Clinical Examination due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown precluding face-to-face Objective Structured Clinical Examinations, something we too as clinical medical students studying at University College London have experienced. We commend Boyle et al. for promptly creating and delivering this assessment. However, we believe this style of assessment has the potential to exacerbate the ethnic and social inequalities that currently exist within medical education. Going forward, it is imperative that the home environment is considered in an attempt to level the playing field.