Conference Attendance Tracking and Evaluation in the Era of Virtual Conferences

Abstract

Rationale and Objectives The coronavirus pandemic upended in-person radiology education and led to a transition to virtual platforms. We needed a new method to monitor lecture attendance, previously relying on a physical badge system. Our goal was to develop and implement a virtual conference attendance system that is user-friendly, automated, useable in any virtual conference environment, and accurate. Materials and Methods We developed a web-based platform to serve as a virtual conference attendance tracking and evaluation platform. Daily, the application synchronizes with our lecture calendar to identify scheduled conferences and generates a unique attendance link for each event. The link is automatically posted in the conference chat and attendees must be logged in by the time it is posted to click the link, prompting single sign-on authentication. We integrated the system with resident schedules to excuse residents when appropriate. Real-time attendance reports are accessible in a user-friendly dashboard with a 5-star lecture review and comment system. We surveyed residents on satisfaction with the application after 1-year of use. Results Over the 2020–2021 academic year, we registered 376 conferences with 5,040 virtual swipes from 65 users. Once set up, virtual swipes take seconds to perform with minimal disruption to the conference. Average satisfaction for the platform was rated as 4.69 on a scale of 1 to 5. All respondents agreed or strongly agreed that use of the platform should be continued for future years, with 85% strongly agreeing. Conclusion : We developed an online platform for radiology conference attendance logging and evaluation, designed for virtual conferences.

Radiology Education and Training 2022–2032: Are We in Danger of Fighting Yesterday’s War?

“…The societal cost may be highest in terms of how education has changed—will the lack of in-person teaching lead to future shortcomings in the knowledge base of radiology trainees and other medical learners? Even at the level of how conference attendance is tracked, we have had to rethink our approach and make online resources available [ 1 ]. It may be decades before we ultimately understand the impact of COVID on our trainees.…”