Attendance at live vs virtual didactic sessions in a U.S. emergency medicine residency

Introduction: The changes to education settings brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic illustrated many benefits and challenges related to graduate medical education in the virtual setting. It is unknown how the education setting (live vs virtual) affects education conference attendance. Evaluating attendance is the first step toward investigating overall levels of learner engagement. We explored if there was a difference in attendance between the live and virtual settings in an emergency medicine morbidity and mortality (M&M) conference and didactic education sessions. Methods: Attendance data over a three-year period that began before the COVID-19 pandemic and continued through the end of 2022 was analyzed to compare participation in M&M and didactics between live and virtual conference days. Results: Attendance for the initial 90-minute M&M part of the conference day was significantly greater in the virtual setting compared to the live setting (CI: 1.15-1.26), with a 21% increase in attendance. There was no significant difference in attendance between the live and virtual setting once lectures transitioned to the 3-hour didactic portion of the emergency medicine conference (p=0.135). Conclusion: The findings of this single center study were that attendance was similar in the live and virtual education settings as part of a structured emergency medicine didactic training curriculum. This is the foundational step in evaluating overall engagement between the two distinct learning environments and supports further investigation of the relative effectiveness of educational activities in these settings. The integration of virtual M&M education may allow more attendings and residents to attend those specific educational sessions.