• Nathan A Shlobin, Ryan E Radwanski, Michael W Kortz, Jonathan J Rasouli, Wende N Gibbs, Khoi D Than, Ali A Baaj, John H Shin, and Nader S Dahdaleh.
• Department of Neurological Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA; Medical Student Neurosurgery Training Center, Brain and Spine Group, Inc., Pasadena, California, USA. Electronic address: nathan.shlobin@northwestern.edu.
• World Neurosurg. 2022 Jul 1; 163: 179-186.

ObjectiveDistance learning has become increasingly important to expand access to neurosurgical spine education. However, emerging online spine education initiatives have largely focused on residents, fellows, and surgeons in practice. We aimed to assess the utility of online neurosurgical spine education for medical students regarding career interests, knowledge, and technical skills.MethodsA survey assessing the demographics and effects of virtual spine education programming on the interests, knowledge, and technical skills was sent to attendees of several virtual spine lectures. The ratings were quantified using 7-point Likert scales.ResultsA total of 36 responses were obtained, of which 15 (41.7%) were from first- or second-year medical students and 18 (50.0%) were from international students. Most respondents were interested in neurosurgery (n = 30; 80.3%), with smaller numbers interested in radiology (n = 3; 8.3%) and orthopedic surgery (n = 2; 5.6%). The rating of utility ranged from 5.69 ± 1.14 to 6.50 ± 0.81 for career, 5.83 ± 0.94 to 6.14 ± 0.80 for knowledge, and 5.22 ± 1.31 to 5.83 ± 1.06 for clinical skills. Of the 36 respondents, 26 (72.2%) preferred virtual neurosurgical spine education via intermixed lectures and interactive sessions. The most common themes regarding the utility of virtual spine education were radiology by 18 (50.0%), anatomy by 12 (33.3%), and case-based teaching by 8 (22.2%) respondents.ConclusionsVirtual distance learning for neurosurgical spine education is beneficial for students by enabling career exploration and learning content and clinical skills. Although the overall benefit was lowest for clinical skills, virtual programming could serve as an adjunct to traditional in-person exposure. Distance learning could also provide an avenue to reduce disparities in medical student neurosurgical spine education locally and globally.Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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