Perceptions and Impact of a Worldwide Virtual Medical Learning Strategy in Endoscopic Spine Surgery: A 1-Year Prospective Comparative Study

Objective: Endoscopic spine surgery (ESS) is a relatively new approach for managing several spine pathologies. However, some challenges remain regarding its training and implementation. Virtual medical education (VME) emerged as a strategy during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, but the use of VME as a learning strategy for ESS has been inadequately studied. The purpose of this study was to report participants' perceptions of the clinical impact1 year after implementation of an ESS-VME strategy during the pandemic, 1 year after implementation.Methods: A cross-sectional international paired-survey descriptive study was conducted to evaluate the impact and perceptions of a VME strategy for ESS. Participants completed 3 surveys before, immediately after, and 1 year following the course to assess their perceptions of the training, its contribution to their clinical practice, and the feasibility of implementing ESS in a timely manner.Results: In total, 996 specialists from 27 countries were enrolled. Approximately 38% (n=371) of the original respondents completed the course satisfactorily, met the certification requirements, and answered the second survey, reporting 97.8% satisfaction with a score greater than 8 points out of 10. Furthermore, 93.1% stated that the course significantly contributed to their clinical practice. At 1.11± 0.08 years after completing the course, 88 participants (24% of participants who completed the course) answered the final survey. The percentage of participants who had performed some ESS increased from 39.2% to 60.8% (p<0.05). More than 60% of the participants received some additional training.Conclusions: Medical education underwent significant changes following the COVID-19 pandemic. Developing curricular programs with VME tools can reduce training costs and time, while achieving high satisfaction and positive, measurable impacts. The final success of the training is the implementation of the techniques with a low complication rate.