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Journal of Radiological Review 2020 November-December;7(6):448-51

DOI: 10.23736/S2723-9284.20.00063-1

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

Radiology training program during COVID-19 at the A. Gemelli University Polyclinic Foundation, Rome

Pietro TROMBATORE ¹ ✉, Francesca GIUBBOLINI ¹, Andrea BARTOLO ¹, Andrea ROMI ¹, Iacopo VALENTE ², Cesare COLOSIMO ^{1, 2}

¹ Sacred Heart Catholic University, Rome, Italy; ² Unit of Radiology and Neuroradiology, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCSS, Rome, Italy

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on our University Hospital, designated as a COVID-19-reference center. Our Department of Radiology adopted severe measures to face these unforeseen circumstances: non-urgent interventional and diagnostic procedures were postponed in order to shift healthcare resources towards COVID-19 patients. These profound changes have produced significant consequences on residents’ daily practice and on the whole residence training program. In order to contain the infection and to minimize exposure to COVID-19, the access of the residents to the Radiology Unit was limited to essential workers only. The activity of the residents was restructured with the assumption to ensure only one resident for each radiological modality, to allow workstations at least 2 meters apart from each other. The only exception was the emergency department. Moreover, residents were reorganized into three teams, working on a rotation of 3 weeks (1 week on and 2 weeks off). The three teams would theoretically never physically interact, thus preventing cross-contamination from one team to another. Residents’ attendance of external hospitals both in Rome and outside the region was suspended to limit the risk of virus spreading. Therefore, COVID-19 could have a serious negative impact on residents training. The aim of this report is to describe how our residency program has changed and to provide some proposals to guarantee the resident learning curve during COVID-19 pandemic.

KEY WORDS: Medical education; COVID-19; Coronavirus; Radiology