Abstract 327: Mentorship Program for Young Neurologists, Medical Students and Researcher: Lessons from COVID‐19 Lockdown

Introduction COVID‐19 pandemic has caused unprecedented public health and economicchallenges. Current public health, scientific and research communities are faced by thenecessity to provide a fundamental contribution to tackle the crisis. During the past couple ofyears, we have witnessed an impressive number of initiatives to encourage networkingopportunities, to foster virtual interactions between the different stakeholders involved (healthcare, industry, governments, academics, and patients), and to develop innovative strategies andcollaborative infrastructures in support of clinical care, scientific research, and medicaleducation. In this study, we propose and adopt a novel open and collaborative approach to joinforces from around the world social media websites as an essential tool in the fight against theCOVID‐19 crisis. We also investigated the involvement of crowds as innovation partners can beof great support in medical education.To propose novel virtual mentorship program as a teaching tool to improve career skills amongyoung Neurosurgeon and Ophthalmologists. Methods Virtual training program was designed and crowdsourcing was used using socialmedia. Highly qualified senior physicians were paired with junior trainees/students throughonline workshops. Juniors were guided through online platforms and interactive sessions onclinical, research, interviewing, and CV writing skills Results Program received an initial wave of 965 applicants from 18 countries. Total of 719participants were provided a generic teaching program, while 246 were enrolled to a morepersonalized program where they received at least 20 sessions from their assigned mentors. Allparticipants had significantly improved their set of skills as evidenced by their community work,clinical skills, and research output. Conclusion Online virtual training programs can help great skills transfer between skilledacademic young neurosurgeon, ophthalmologists and young trainees worldwide.