Medical School Approach to Manage the Current COVID-19 Crisis.

To the Editor:

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted learning in many educational institutions around the world, particularly in medical schools. Whenever possible, the impact should be minimized to ensure academic continuity and to maintain the efficiency of the health care system. At National University of Singapore, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, we used the following guiding principles to develop systematic and holistic measures during the COVID-19 outbreak. We believe that these principles are useful for other medical schools developing contingency plans. Our approach to ensure academic continuity and quality was based on best practices in the following 4 areas:

A centralized system of management: A centralized contingency work group was set up and tasked to develop the precautionary measures, implementing a business continuity plan and policies that came from health authorities. They also ensured systematic dissemination of information to all stakeholders. A one-stop direct communication link was made available for any clarifications. These were important to develop the trust and confidence in the school and the shared information.

Ensuring safety of all students, staff, and patients/standardized patients: This was extremely crucial and was based on early detection and reducing the risk of widespread transmission. Besides improving cleaning frequency and limiting movement to other health care institutions to prevent cross-cluster contamination, the collective effort of staff allowed rapid implementation of split-team work arrangements to preserve functional integrity. Extra effort was also spent to provide isolated students with basic necessities and mental health support services to alleviate stress.

Transparency and consistency in information dissemination: Misinformation is readily available online, so our institution was determined to disseminate trusted information. One way was to dispel the myths by creating the COVID-19 Chronicles, which are educational one-page cartoons. Also, the higher management (e.g., provost) built trust by updating students and staff on infected cases within our school.

Continuity of learning quality and rigor: We achieved this via long-term planning as our school had already developed and documented its e-learning platform and staff were using it. Some staff involved students in the formulation of their contingency plans. Classes with more than 50 students and clinical placements were converted to online learning. The Zoom videoconference platform was used for a scenario-based station during admissions. Robustness of the assessment system was maintained through these principles[1]: infection control measures, (2) awareness of the way students were training and preparing for examinations, and (3) reduction of fallout due to fear of contracting COVID-19.

We hope that these guiding principles will be helpful to other medical schools dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak.