The response of medical science education during COVID-19: Lessons for developing countries

The COVID -19 virus has profoundly affected everyone’s life, and students around the world are significantly involved in the changes occurred. With the spread and pandemic of the disease, educational institutions and centers were closed and higher education, especially medical sciences, were subject to changes. Medical education institutions took measures to increase the quality of distance education [1] and used a combination of teaching methods to create opportunities for brainstorming on effective distance education [2]. Therefore, strategies such as time management and critical thinking were used for students’ online learning [3] and appropriate communication, effective interaction, and efficient teaching were emphasized [4]. This article addressed the response of medical education for continuing distance education and stated the most important measures of medical education:

1. Providing technology support teams

2. Providing necessary infrastructures for online education, including the Internet, laptops, tablets, etc.

3. Developing the platforms and technologies such as virtual meetings, virtual reality, etc.

4. Training the teacher how to teach online

5. Dividing the classes into smaller groups in case of face-to-face participation

6. Offering great virtual rounds, lectures, webinars, and special telephone conferences and forums

7. Providing student-based education

8. Providing the education based on live surgeries or surgical simulators

9. Sharing documents, photos, and videos

10. Holding online periodic group meetings with close supervision of professors on students’ performance and scientific support of them

11. Using offline learning

12. Collaborating with academic research institutes and sharing the latest research developments

13. Designing educational websites and uploading tens of thousands clinical videos.

Numerous efforts have been made to continue education in universities and medical education institutes, which can be instructive and useful for developing countries. From a positive perspective, closing classes is not a concern or detriment to education, but can be a new learning experience [5]. Therefore, we should all do our best to overcome the tough situation successfully.

Consent to publish

All authors have read the final manuscript and have given their approval for the manuscript to be published in its present form.

1. Crawford J, Butler-Henderson K, Rudolph J, Malkawi B, Glowatz M, et al. (2020) COVID-19: 20 countries' higher education intra-period digital pedagogy responses. Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching 3: 1-20. Link: https://bit.ly/3bUmQoy
2. Alexander N, Gibbons K, Marshall S, Rodriguez M, Sweitzer J, et al. (2020) Implementing Principles of Reimagine Minnesota in a Period of Remote Teaching and Learning: Education Equity in the Age of COVID-19. Link: https://bit.ly/3bWTs0O
3. Pather N, Blyth P, Chapman JA, Dayal MR, Flack NA, et al. (2020) Forced Disruption of Anatomy Education in Australia and New Zealand: An Acute Response to the Covid‐19 Pandemic. Anat Sci Educ 13: 284-300. Link: https://bit.ly/3oOFP9r
4. Bao W (2020) COVID‐19 and online teaching in higher education: A case study of Peking University. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies 2: 113-115. Link: https://bit.ly/3fj9vbx
5. Theoret C, Ming X (2020) Our Education, Our Concerns: Medical Student Education Impact due to COVID‐19. Med Educ 54: 591-592. Link: https://bit.ly/3yHrAaL