Journal of the American College of Surgeons
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The COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions triggered a rapid alteration in the interview process for fellowships this spring. We describe our initial experience with virtual interviews for Advanced Gastrointestinal (GI) Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowships and assess the value and limitations via a post-interview applicant survey. ⋯ The use of a remote teleconferencing platform provides a favorable method for conducting fellowship interviews and results in a high degree of candidate satisfaction. Virtual interviews will likely be increasingly substituted for in-person interviews across the spectrum of medical training.
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The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the delivery of surgical services. The purpose of this communication was to report the impact of the pandemic on surgical training and learner well-being and to document adaptations made by surgery departments. ⋯ The pandemic adversely impacted surgical training and the well-being of learners across all surgical specialties proportional to increasing ACGME stage. There is a need to develop education disaster plans to support technical competency and learner well-being. Careful assessment for program advancement will also be necessary. The experience during this pandemic shows that virtual learning and telemedicine will have a considerable impact on the future of surgical education.