Enhancing the didactic learning experience for Laboratory Genetics and Genomics fellows through a multi-institutional...

Area of Science:

• Medical Genetics Education
• Virtual Learning Environments
• Fellowship Training Programs

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a shift from traditional in-person didactic lectures to virtual learning formats.
• Laboratory Genetics and Genomics fellowship programs faced challenges in delivering comprehensive education to small cohorts.
• Existing educational models required adaptation to maintain high-quality training in medical genetics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the development and implementation of a multi-institutional virtual Fellow's Conference in Laboratory Genetics and Genomics.
• To assess the efficiency and value of a collaborative approach to didactic content creation for fellowship programs.
• To provide a model for inter-institutional collaboration in medical genetics education.

Main Methods:

• Organized a virtual Fellow's Conference involving multiple institutions.
• Leveraged subject-matter experts from various institutions to deliver lectures on diverse medical genetics topics.
• Documented the process of developing the lecture series and its collaborative framework.

Main Results:

• Successfully delivered a broad range of medical genetics topics through a virtual, multi-institutional conference.
• Demonstrated a reduction in the time and resources individual institutions needed to create didactic content.
• Established a scalable model for collaborative online learning in specialized medical fields.

Conclusions:

• Multi-institutional virtual conferences are an effective strategy for delivering specialized medical genetics education.
• Collaborative educational models offer significant advantages in resource optimization and content breadth for fellowship programs.
• This approach can serve as a valuable template for other medical training programs, including genetic counseling.