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Abstract
Objective The COVID-19 crisis has impacted on all aspects of health care including medical education and training. We describe the disruption of endoscopy training in a tertiary care center in Germany.
Design/Method The reorganization of a high-volume endoscopy unit during the German COVID-19 outbreak is described with special focus on endoscopy trainees. Changes in case volume of gastroenterology fellows were evaluated and compared to a year prior to the outbreak.
Results Reallocation of resources led to the transfer of gastroenterology fellows to intensive care and infectious disease units. Case volume of fellows declined between January and April 2020 by up to 63%. When compared with data from the year prior to the outbreak, endoscopy performed by fellows reduced by up to 56%. Educational meetings and skill evaluation were cancelled indefinitely.
Conclusion The COVID-19 outbreak has had a negative impact on endoscopy training of gastroenterology fellows in a high-volume center in Germany. This must be taken into consideration when planning “return-strategies” after the pandemic.
- endoscopy
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Footnotes
Correction notice This article has been corrected since it published Online First. An abstract has been added.
Contributors CR and JM: study concept and design, collection of data, critical revision of the manuscript. HM: study concept and design, analysis and interpretation of data, critical revision of the manuscript. AE: study concept and design, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting and revision of the manuscript, submission of the manuscript. AE and HM are the overall guarantors of the contents of the study.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Ethics approval The study was approved by the local Institutional Review Board.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.