On a typical day in the Radiology Department at Cincinnati Children’s, we may have up to 12 trainees in the department learning about pediatric radiology. In these unprecedented times, with the need for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, radiology residents (doctors training to be radiologists) and pediatric radiology fellows (radiologists training to sub-specialize in pediatric radiology) are frequently working from offsite, rather than in the radiology reading rooms with the faculty.
In order to continue to educate our trainees, video conferencing has become the new digital classroom. When wanting to teach a didactic lecture or case conference, the conference link is shared with the participants and it is as easy as clicking on the link to join the meeting and hear the presenter. If the presenter has a question for the audience, the participants can click a button to unmute their phone and they are able to answer the question, or even ask a question of their own. If they would prefer to ask a question in writing, they type a chat message in the video conference platform, and the presenter and participants can see the question.
We have also used videoconferencing to add additional learning opportunities throughout the week and to continue our weekly multidisciplinary conferences with the ordering physicians so we can continue to take the best care of our patients. Although we are a bit farther apart, we are still Safer Together.
Dr. Bernadette L. Koch, author; Glenn Miñano, BFA, editor; Meredith Towbin, copyeditor.
