Innovating and adapting to teach cytopathology online during a pandemic

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Vaidehi Avadhani, Emory University; George Birdsong II, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2020-10-02
• Publisher: WILEY
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2020 American Cancer Society
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cncy.22372
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: CANCER CYTOPATHOLOGY
• Volume: 129
• Issue: 4
• Start Page: 326
• End Page: 326
• Grant/Funding Information: No specific funding was disclosed.
• Keywords: Pathology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Oncology; Science & Technology
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Pathology; Health Sciences, Oncology

Abstract

We read the article by Kwon et al with great interest. 1 As the authors pointed out, effective remote teaching not only requires faculty access to appropriate software and hardware but also knowledge and experience to troubleshoot while working with both tools. Although there has been tremendous advancement in image acquisition and broadcast, it comes with a cost that might be difficult for many teaching centers to incorporate into their budget, especially with cost‐cutting measures occurring during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. In our experience, teaching via video conferencing in surgical pathology was not that difficult. However, cytology was different, as was highlighted by Kwon et al. 1 We incorporated Canvas, which already was site‐licensed by Emory University for online instruction, as a teaching tool in cytopathology.