01. Medical Knowledge Education

A variety of methods were used to disseminate medical knowledge around COVID-19 to internal medicine residents. The majority of knowledge content was shared asynchronously using the following methods: institutional guidelines (8/10 programs), housestaff-developed reference sheets (6/10 programs), and publicly available educational media specific to COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment (5/10 programs). Several institutions had housestaff-generated central repositories for COVID-19 knowledge that contained extensive collections of curated COVID-19-related educational materials with links to the primary literature. Two institutions shared knowledge via virtual didactics (i.e., morning report style “COVID-19 conference” and a lunch time PowerPoint presentation).

Common educational themes included clinical presentation, diagnostic testing, therapeutics, critical care management, and personal protection. PPE (personal protective equipment) training was mentioned in all educational materials. Half of the programs had institutional guidance graphics and instructions related to donning and doffing PPE, four programs required residents to watch an online instructional video, and one program required residents to complete a PPE quiz following the training. Notably, one of the programs educated its residents first by an instruction video, followed by a donning/doffing simulation, and ultimately, by direct observation of donning/doffing of PPE in the clinical environment.