Practice of Academic Surgical Pathology During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objectives To determine the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on our service, pre-, and postgraduate education and discuss the measures taken to ensure continued provision of quality service as well as education during the mandatory lockdown. Methods Measures taken to protect staff from infection and minimize virus transmission within the department as well as measures taken to allow smooth provision of quality service and uninterrupted pre- and postgraduate education were analyzed. Data were collected regarding case volumes (histology, cytology, and frozen sections) and case complexity during the lockdown and analyzed. Results Staggered rota was introduced for all staff. Strict social distancing measures were implemented. Staff was extensively counseled regarding the importance of protective measures. Pre- and postgraduate education, which was temporarily suspended, was quickly resumed using online teaching ensuring continuation of academic activities. The volume of cases decreased during the lockdown but complexity increased even more. Conclusions Immediate and effective measures were taken to protect staff from infection and ensure smooth provision of quality services. Measures were quickly taken to ensure resumption of pre- and postgraduate academic activities. The volume of cases decreased but complexity increased. There is fear among faculty and staff regarding the future.

Pushed Across the Digital Divide: COVID-19 Accelerated Pathology Training onto a New Digital Learning Curve

“…The novel coronavirus pandemic of 2019 is a singular, unprecedented period in the lifetimes of everyone currently engaged in pathology practice, teaching, or learning. 14 COVID-19 has disrupted patterns of interaction on most levels of society, including the interpersonal behaviors of pathology faculty and trainees. Remarkably, and very admirably, dedication to the educational mission appears not to have abated, even as social distancing restrictions placed constraints upon face-to-face teaching individually and in groups.…”

Laboratory Medicine and Pathology Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic—Lessons Learned

“…Other institutions have published their experiences with the educational impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 9 , 10 Advances being made in digital pathology (eg, whole slide imaging) have been noted to be especially useful in the context of a need for physical distancing. 11 , 12 Mukhopadhyay et al have compiled curated lists of online resources that can be used for virtual learning in pathology.…”

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the case profile of the Pathology Department of a tertiary hospital: Comparison of the number of cases and malignancy rates between 2019 and 2020

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, the operations of elective cases in healthcare facilities had to be interrupted from time to time. In addition, people felt uneasy about going to routine control examinations because the fear of the possibility of COVID-19 infection (4). For these reasons, number of applications to health institutions for non-COVID-19 reasons has generally decreased (3)(4)(5)(6)(7).…”

“…In addition, people felt uneasy about going to routine control examinations because the fear of the possibility of COVID-19 infection (4). For these reasons, number of applications to health institutions for non-COVID-19 reasons has generally decreased (3)(4)(5)(6)(7). For example one emergency department from Turkey reported approximately 50% reduction in applications in the pandemic period (8).…”

“…Therefore, it can be estimated that the number of cases examined in the pathology department has decreased too. There are some reports showing the effects of pandemic to the case numbers of pathology departments in the literature (12)(13)(14), but very few reports demonstrated the differences in malignancy rates of the pathology and cytology case volume (4,15,16). Herein we aimed to compare the number of cases reported in our Pathology Department in 2019 and 2020 with the rates of malignant and non-malignant categories to document the effects of the pandemic to a pathology department of a tertiary hospital if there is a decrease in the number of cases and increase the malignancy rates due to pandemic.…”