Virtual Pathology Elective Provides Uninterrupted Medical Education and Impactful Pathology Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

As students do not qualify as essential health care workers, medical education faced severe disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic including initial suspension of all in-person lectures and on-site rotations. Our Pathology Department was among the first at Northwestern to offer a completely virtual rotation with the goals of: (1) providing a comprehensive introduction to the practice of anatomic and clinical pathology, (2) emphasizing uninterrupted and continued excellence in education, and (3) minimizing exposure risk during the pandemic. The innovative 2-week curriculum incorporated diverse teaching modalities including live and recorded lectures; live and recorded video demonstrations; interactive small group discussions; interactive virtual sign-outs; and written and multimedia assignments, quizzes, and projects. The virtual elective ran from March to July 2020 with 52 total participating medical students. On post-rotation evaluations, students rated the pathology virtual elective 4.7/5.0 compared to other virtual rotations and 4.0/5.0 compared to all rotations (including in-person and virtual). Furthermore, continual improvements were made to the established framework based on rotation feedback such that curriculum content was more abundant and more favorably rated by the last cohort when compared to the first. Finally, although students identified interest in over 10 different medical specialties, all participants expressed increased interest in choosing pathology as a specialty and better understanding of pathology’s role in patient care. We hope our detailed description of creating and evaluating a completely virtual elective rotation serves as a model for other departments to improve pathology education and visibility.

Outcomes of Remote Pathology Instruction in Student Performance and Course Evaluation

“…[20][21][22] These changes reflected similar adjustments imposed on pathology resident training and upper-class student electives and mostly concerned the replacement of instruction centered on a physical microscope with the use of virtually accessed digitized slides. [23][24][25][26][27] Among individual medical schools, the decision of how to modify instruction depended on factors such as content complexity, technical feasibility, time limitations, and infrastructure capacity. 28 In our institution, the decision involved an immediate transition to completely remote instruction for all preclinical courses and was partly influenced by the fact that our school's location was at the time an epicenter of the pandemic.…”

Virtual Pathology Education in Medical Schools Worldwide during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Advantages, Challenges Faced, and Perspectives

“…Notably, in some medical schools, senior medical students can additionally choose to attend a more advanced pathology elective which could be 2- to 4- weeks duration. In such electives and in contrast to the preclinical pathology courses, participants are exposed more to pathology as a profession, in addition to the role of pathologists in today’s medical practice, by shadowing residents and attendings, attending grand rounds, and participating in daily sign-out sessions [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ].…”

“…However, due to the unprecedented challenges to medical schools worldwide induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, pathology teaching around the world largely shifted towards remote delivery, and whole courses needed to be re-designed to fit the online environment. In addition, pathology educators had to adjust their teaching style, learn novel technologies, and create new material suitable to teach remotely during the unprecedented period they were facing [ 4 , 8 , 11 , 14 , 15 ]. Various innovative platforms were used, designed to facilitate both synchronous and asynchronous learning, as well as small group sessions.…”

“…Various innovative platforms were used, designed to facilitate both synchronous and asynchronous learning, as well as small group sessions. Examples of such platforms include Zoom (Zoom Video Communications, Inc., San Jose, CA, USA), Blackboard Learn (Blackboard Inc., Washington, DC, USA), Microsoft Teams (Microsoft Corporation, Albuquerque, NM, USA), Google Classroom (Google LLC., Mountain View, CA, USA), and Google Meet (Google LLC., Mountain View, CA, USA) [ 8 , 11 , 14 , 16 ]. Notably, digital pathology was exclusively utilized for the microscopic slide sessions [ 8 , 11 ].…”

“…Examples of such platforms include Zoom (Zoom Video Communications, Inc., San Jose, CA, USA), Blackboard Learn (Blackboard Inc., Washington, DC, USA), Microsoft Teams (Microsoft Corporation, Albuquerque, NM, USA), Google Classroom (Google LLC., Mountain View, CA, USA), and Google Meet (Google LLC., Mountain View, CA, USA) [ 8 , 11 , 14 , 16 ]. Notably, digital pathology was exclusively utilized for the microscopic slide sessions [ 8 , 11 ]. In our pathology sessions and during this period, we used a combination of modalities such as synchronous interactive lectures, laboratory sessions with static images (gross and microscopic) and digital pathology, asynchronous assignments highlighting clinicopathological correlations, and quizzes providing immediate feedback to the students.…”