Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 18, 2025
Bridging the Technology Divide in the COVID-19 Era: Using Virtual Outreach to Expose Middle and High School Students to Imaging Technology
Published on: September 28, 2022
Implementation and evaluation of eight virtual surgical electives for medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic
Brian Pettitt-Schieber1, Marissa Kuo1, Andrew Steehler1
1School of Medicine, Emory University, USA.
Background:
Eight novel virtual surgery electives (VSEs) were developed and implemented in April-May 2020 for medical students forced to continue their education remotely due to COVID-19.
Methods:
Each VSE was 1-2 weeks long, contained specialty-specific course objectives, and included a variety of teaching modalities. Students completed a post-course survey to assess changes in their interest and understanding of the specialty. Quantitative methods were employed to analyze the results.
Results:
Eighty-three students participated in the electives and 67 (80.7%) completed the post-course survey. Forty-six (68.7%) respondents reported "increased" or "greatly increased" interest in the course specialty completed. Survey respondents' post-course understanding of each specialty increased by a statistically significant amount (p-value = <0.0001).
Conclusion:
This initial effort demonstrated that VSEs can be an effective tool for increasing medical students' interest in and understanding of surgical specialties. They should be studied further with more rigorous methods in a larger population.
