Objective: 

To explore the prospects of academic e-learning by evaluating our long-standing internet-based surgical learning program and to assess the impact of training on the presentation skills of our residents. The eventual goal is to search whether such models could be further developed by the European Surgical Association (ESA).

Background: 

E-learning has become a major educational trend particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. For more than a decade, our academic tertiary center has released weekly video-lectures covering the entire abdominal-surgical curriculum for residents. All lessons were prepared under the supervision of specialized experts and recorded and edited by a professional film team before being released on a dedicated YouTube channel (https://www.usz.ch/surgical-resident-lectures).

Methods: 

To date, our channel includes 120 presentations with more than 619,000 views. We conducted a survey among online users with a medical background and tested the benefits and potential for improvements of local stakeholders to collect individual reviews.

Results: 

A total of 708 users from 106 countries participated in the survey. Continuing medical education (49%), specific questions (38%), and exam preparation (33%) were the main motivations for video viewing. The preferred topics were current guidelines (69%), latest research topics (59%), and complex surgical conditions (52%). Ninety-four percent of our local audience reported a positive learning experience.

Conclusion: 

E-learning can improve local academic training and promote the global visibility of strong academic centers. Providing free and unrestricted expertise via social media is a novel and groundbreaking opportunity that fills a global education gap by dissemination of surgical education on an unprecedented scale. Expert associations such as the ESA may adopt similar formats and foster their perception as true beacons of knowledge.

中文翻译：

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迈向虚拟的“全球外科医生学术界”

客观的： 

通过评估我们长期存在的基于互联网的外科手术学习计划来探索学术电子学习的前景，并评估培训对我们居民的演讲技巧的影响。最终目标是研究欧洲外科协会 (ESA) 是否可以进一步开发此类模型。

背景： 

电子学习已成为一种主要的教育趋势，尤其是在 COVID-19 大流行期间。十多年来，我们的高等教育学术中心每周都会发布涵盖住院医师整个腹部外科课程的视频讲座。所有课程均在专业专家的监督下准备，并由专业的电影团队录制和编辑，然后在专门的 YouTube 频道 ( https://www.usz.ch/surgical-resident-lectures )上发布。

方法： 

迄今为止，我们的频道包含 120 个演示文稿，观看次数超过 619,000 次。我们对具有医学背景的在线用户进行了一项调查，并测试了当地利益相关者收集个人评论的好处和改进潜力。

结果： 

共有来自106个国家的708位用户参与了调查。继续医学教育 (49%)、特定问题 (38%) 和考试准备 (33%) 是观看视频的主要动机。首选主题是当前指南 (69%)、最新研究主题 (59%) 和复杂的手术条件 (52%)。百分之九十四的当地观众报告了积极的学习经历。

结论： 

电子学习可以改善当地的学术培训并提升强大学术中心的全球知名度。通过社交媒体提供免费和不受限制的专业知识是一个新颖的开创性机会，它通过以前所未有的规模传播外科教育来填补全球教育空白。ESA 等专家协会可能会采用类似的形式，并将其视为真正的知识灯塔。