Advances in Medical Education and Practice (Aug 2022)

The Utility and Educational Impact of a Virtual Webinar to Deliver an International Undergraduate Cardiovascular Conference

  • Ganesananthan S,
  • Zahid A,
  • Choudhry A,
  • Vadiveloo TV,
  • Khan N,
  • Yang T,
  • Urrehman H,
  • Mahesh S,
  • Yousef Z

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 13
pp. 993 – 1002

Abstract

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Sashiananthan Ganesananthan,1,2 Abeer Zahid,2 Anam Choudhry,2 Thivya V Vadiveloo,2 Nailah Khan,2 Ting Yang,2 Haroon Urrehman,2 Sahana Mahesh,2 Zaheer Yousef2– 4 1National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, UK; 2Cardiff University School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK; 3Department of Cardiology, University Hospital Wales, Cardiff, Wales, UK; 4Welsh Heart Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UKCorrespondence: Sashiananthan Ganesananthan, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, UK, Email [email protected]: Conferences are an important avenue for dissemination of knowledge, research and provide networking opportunities for career development. The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted adoption of virtual platforms for delivery of these conferences. The aim of the study was to determine the utility and educational impact of a student-led virtual webinar to deliver an undergraduate cardiovascular conference compared to a traditional in-person conference.Methods: We conducted a two-day virtual conference using the Zoom platform in June 2021. The conference consisted of cardiology subspecialty lectures, and workshops were conducted by a junior doctor, senior cardiology trainees and consultants. The conference also outlaid a virtual poster hall and oral presentation session while networking opportunities were encouraged using breakout rooms and poster hall chat function. A 38-item self-administered online questionnaire was designed and disseminated at the end of the conference to all attending delegates. All data analysis and data visualisation strategies were conducted on R statistical programming.Results: Eight-hundred and forty students from 55 countries attended the event. Four hundred and ninety participants (58.5% response rate, 55.9% female) completed the questionnaire. Factors such as weekend conference (84.9%), student-led or organised (84.1%), environmental/sustainable (82.3%), appropriate level for me (81.5%) and comfort to present (80.8%) were deemed to be at least equal to traditional in-person conference. The conference also increased participants’ interest, their core cardiology knowledge and improved their critical analysis and basic echocardiography skills [median 4 (IQR 3– 5) for all parameters]. Overall, participants also found it easy to use the virtual platform [median 5 (IQR 5– 5)] and easier to ask questions compared to in-person conferences [median 5 (IQR 4– 5) vs median 4 (IQR 3– 5), p < 0.001].Conclusion: Our virtual conference provided opportunities to students that the COVID-19 pandemic would have otherwise affected; however, its utility and educational impact will need to be assessed within its individual context of delivery.Keywords: virtual conference, undergraduate, international, educational impact, cardiology, webinar

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