Knowledge Revolution during COVID-19 Pandemic: International Microsurgery Club Webinar Series.

In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic attacked the world, leading to conference cancelations, postponements, and shifts to online platforms, which provided great convenience and high cost-effectiveness for virtual meetings compared with face-to-face meetings.[1] The International Microsurgery Club, the largest microsurgery education online group, started by Dr. Tommy Nai-Jen Chang (Taiwan) in 2016 on Facebook, also reacted to this change very quickly.[2-4]

In early 2019, the International Microsurgery Club started to work with the Journal of Reconstructive Microsurgery for the journal club, but the interface was not mature enough. In February of 2020, the International Microsurgery Club broadcast in the group for the first time via the Open Broadcaster Software system with Dr. Jong-Woo Choi (Republic of Korea). This method made it easier for viewers to stay engaged and follow along with the presentation. Later, the Club quickly decided to cooperate with major international microsurgery societies (Table 1) and set up the regular weekend webinar series in consideration of the lack of in-person conferences after the COVID-19 outbreak. Between February of 2020 and June of 2021, more than 130 International Microsurgery Club webinars, covering all categories and presented by global masters, were delivered for free. [See Figure, Supplemental Digital Content 1, which shows the International Microsurgery Club webinar schedule for August of 2020. The International Microsurgery Club Central hosted 10 webinars, either independently or in cooperation with other societies, delivered by microsurgery experts focusing on various topics, http://links.lww.com/PRS/F253. See Appendix, Supplemental Digital Content 2, which shows the details of the International Microsurgery Club webinar series in August of 2020, http://links.lww.com/PRS/F254.]

Table 1.

Major Cooperators with International Microsurgery Club Webinars (June of 2021)

Journals/Societies	People in Charge
Journal of Reconstructive Microsurgery	Bernard Lee (United States), Joon-Pio (Jp) Hong (Korea)
Journal of Hand and Microsurgery	Terrence Jose Jorome (India)
World Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery	David W. Chang (United States), Eric Santamaria (Mexico)
International Course on SuperMicrosurgery	Isao Koshima (Japan), Zengtao Wang (China)
AO Craniomaxillofacial Surgery	Gregorio Sánchez Aniceto (Spain), Susana Heredero (Spain)
The Buncke Clinic	Bauback Safa (United States), Gregory M. Buncke (United States)
Plastic Surgery (textbook)	Peter C. Neligan (United States)

The great success of the International Microsurgery Club webinars caused other societies to follow the trend of online meetings.[5] Not only does the International Microsurgery Club handle its own webinar series, it also serves a platform for other societies to share their webinar information. Since September of 2020, the International Microsurgery Club has allied with other societies to create the International Microsurgery Webinar League to pool resources and links into a single place, with more than 400 free webinar talks collected and accessible for free. [See Figure, Supplemental Digital Content 3, which shows the International Microsurgery Webinar League. In September of 2020, International Microsurgery Club Central cooperated with other major microsurgery webinar hosts to establish the International Microsurgery Webinar League, sharing more than 400 free webinar collections among the societies as of June of 2021, http://links.lww.com/PRS/F255.]

The International Microsurgery Club has gained more popularity and effectiveness than many other societies utilizing webinars for several reasons. First, it schedules webinars consistently at the same time to increase accessibility for members from all time zones. The webinars also stick to the same day (weekends) to avoid interfering in participants’ weekly clinical work. Second, presenting the webinars at no charge removes the financial burden when inviting speakers and reduces the cost consideration of attendance. Third, in the webinars, not only do the speaker(s) provide knowledge, but the moderators and panelists are also experts in the field, so discussions are exciting. Last but not the least, the webinars are recorded, with the permission of the speakers, and the videos are uploaded to International Microsurgery website (http://www.imw.global) for registered members to review without time limitations.

As webinars spring up, copyrights and patient privacy are still of concern when using online platforms. Copyright issues are more difficult to regulate due to rapid technology progress, while patient privacy is easier to handle by obtaining a signed informed consent form for publication.

In conclusion, the COVID-19 crisis revolutionized and accelerated knowledge transmission using an economic and efficient system, with the great cooperation of global microsurgeons. As noted in the slogan of the International Microsurgery Club webinar series, “your freeway to priceless knowledge,” we believe that webinars will continue to play an important role in microsurgery education worldwide after the COVID-19 pandemic era ends.

PHOTOGRAPHIC CONSENT

Participants provided written informed consent for the use of their images.

DISCLOSURE

The authors have no conflict of interest or financial interest to declare in relation to the content of this article.