Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Clinical Practice, Medical Education, and Research: An International Survey.

Objectives: Because of the mandatory sanitary measures established during the Covid-19 Pandemic, we have proposed to describe the new clinical, educative, and research practices of an international sample of doctors.

Methods: We have used an online electronic survey of a convenient sample of doctors from 40 countries using a multiple-choice online questionnaire, including three domains.  424 out of 456 respondents provided adequate responses.

Results: Most respondents were from medical (51.5%) and surgical (11.8%) specialties. Over half of the respondents practiced in academic centers and one fifth in the private sector. Coronavirus pandemic induced frequent changes in practice, such as seeing fewer patients in clinics than usual (34.9%) and utilization of telemedicine (31.3%). A significant disruption in medical education activities and residents' training was observed, resulting in the cancellation of many activities such as grand rounds, departmental and multidisciplinary meetings, and case conferences with over-reliance on virtual and on-demand educational sessions. The residents' supervision and support were significantly reduced. Almost 16% of respondents were involved in research work on coronavirus pandemic while a third continued their usual research activity, but half were not involved in any research at the time of the survey.

Conclusions: The COVID19 pandemic has promoted new practices in the field as the recourse to telemedicine, virtual conferences, and thematic researches on COVID-19. The unexpected situation has opened new prospects for future doctors' preparation for these new means of practice and learning of medicine.