Introduction
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) originating from
Wuhan, China has now rapidly transitioned into a global pandemic. The
etiological agent of COVID-19, known as severe acute respiratory
syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has infected more than 2.3 million
people worldwide causing 157,847 deaths, according to the World Health
Organization (WHO) as of April 20, 2020.1 The United
States alone currently makes up more than 745,000 of the infected
patients, with numerous cases rising everyday.2 Given
the high rates of transmission especially through asymptomatic carriers,
many governing bodies and leaders have called for its citizens to stay
at home to prevent overwhelming the healthcare system and its limited
resources.
While COVID-19 has undoubtedly triggered serious economic losses, the
pandemic will have profound and lasting implications on graduate medical
education. University hospitals have had to take the unprecedented route
of suspending classes and mandating all non-essential staff to stay at
home. Though many medical students have mobilized to create
organizations to support frontline workers, medical training is likely
to suffer without emergent measures to provide continuing education.
Particularly for those interested in a surgical field, it is challenging
to develop a curriculum that is able to closely replicate the experience
of the operating room. The situation is even more complex for students
who are undecided on their specialty choice, as COVID-19 may affect
desires to match into historically competitive fields, such as
otolaryngology. We hope to emphasize how COVID-19 will impact exposure
to otolaryngology and residency decision making, as well as propose
solutions to mitigate disruption to medical education.