Smart glasses and video conferencing provide valuable medical student clinical exposure during COVID-19

Jeffery Baker; Melissa Schultz; Martin Huecker; Jacob Shreffler; Mary Nan Mallory

doi:10.1002/aet2.10571

Smart glasses and video conferencing provide valuable medical student clinical exposure during COVID-19

AEM Educ Train. 2021 Feb 19;5(3):e10571. doi: 10.1002/aet2.10571. eCollection 2021 Jul.

Authors

Jeffery Baker¹, Melissa Schultz¹, Martin Huecker¹, Jacob Shreffler¹, Mary Nan Mallory¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Emergency Medicine University of Louisville School of Medicine Louisville Kentucky USA.

Abstract

Background: Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic impose significant limitations on clinical education in emergency medicine.

Methods: An emergency physician with smart glasses technology (SGT) was deployed into our emergency department (ED) to identify, enable, and curate a remote ED clinical learning experience for preclinical medical students in lieu of onsite shadowing. Students were assigned to one of four (2-h) sessions in May or June 2020.

Results: All 22 students participated remotely and responded to postrotation surveys. Feedback showed enthusiastic acceptance by instructors and students. Difficulty with technology was minimal. All students "strongly agreed" that they would participate in future sessions.

Conclusions: This SGT instructional method represents a feasible and effective strategy to expose preclinical medical students to clinical medicine in the ED.