integration of AI into training as well as endoscopic practice. For training, AI will guide progress of lesson plans and acceleration of development of cognitive skills such as lesion recognition and appropriate interpretation and management of findingsExpanded use of social media communication to accelerate learning and information sharing among trainees.Mobile phone accessible atlas, guideline, and other searchable educational resources.Wide growth in use of remote video mentoring and proctoring, particularly in low‐volume techniques.Perhaps, further increased sub‐specialization of endoscopic training—EUS/ERCP; resection; bariatric endoscopy, hospital urgent endoscopy [obstruction, bleeding].Development of certification examinations for endoscopy to standardize credentialing and re‐credentialing process.Development of endoscopy‐specific continuing medical education (CME)/maintenance of certification (MOC) activities.Wider capture of endoscopy practice outcomes, establishment of standard quality benchmarks for more specific techniques, and development of validated remediation training modules for underperformers.Improved tailoring of training to workforce needs by geographic location.Major shifts in training program time allocations as screening colonoscopy faces competitive strategies, and other areas such as bariatric endoscopy grow in demand.Formal adoption of train‐the‐trainer programs by US training programs as part of faculty development.Major move to online educational platforms for courses, lectures, video case discussion. Wider access for remote audience to acclaimed experts and challenges to provide engaged interactive learning opportunities. Will GI training programs integrate lectures and grand rounds from outside educational providers [private or professional society sources] or continue to each develop their independent conference agenda each year to meet the common curricular requirements?Collaboration across professional societies and involving regional professional societies will grow to avoid redundancies and increase efficiency in endoscopy education.Industry funding for training and education will be uncertain.Active participation in endoscopy research as part of training may become marginalized to fewer training programs and centers.Decreased emphasis on annual scientific large meetings with greater focus on smaller topic‐specific conferences and increasingly virtual formats over in‐person gatherings.
1 The COVID‐19 pandemic has led to sharply increased interest and then sudden acceptance of video platforms that turn out to be easily accessible worldwide. Learning in remote parts of the world has been made simple and affordable. Rather than bringing equipment and personnel to remote parts of the world, technology allows for the teachers to both teach and supervise from afar. Indeed, despite being retired from active clinical practice, Dr. Jerome Waye, a true pioneer in endoscopy and colonoscopy and in its education, is again pioneering by leading this new wave of remote teaching and proctoring. In 2020, he was able to bring “video‐mentoring” to Uganda and other parts of the world (Figure 1.14) (Video 1.8). [See insert for a first‐hand description of this project by Dr. Waye.]
2 COVID‐19 also accelerated the planning and success of virtual meetings, again greatly expanding accessibility of knowledge sharing, both about endoscopy and gastroenterology in general. For example, the American College of Gastroenterology meeting of 2020 pivoted to “all virtual” and was a technical and education success, with expanded enrollment from prior in‐person meetings. Video sharing webinars are destined to continue as time moves forward. It seems likely that future education in GI and endoscopy will take place to some degree in the “virtual space” as opposed to in person.Figure 1.14 Remote teaching of flexible endoscopy from New York to Kyabirwa, Uganda by Jerome D. Waye, MD, Professor Emeritus Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.Jerome D Waye describes real‐time telementoring in 2020 from New York to Uganda.A few years ago, the chief of surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, where I have been on the staff for 62 years, asked me to go to Uganda to teach a course in endoscopy. This year, I retired as of January 1, and was scheduled to go to Ethiopia where the World Endoscopy Organization has been developing an endoscopy training center at St. Paul’s Millennium Hospital and Medical School. I informed Dr. Michael Marin, the director of Surgery for the whole Mount Sinai Medical System that I would visit his Unit in Uganda following my Ethiopian teaching session during the second week of February, 2020 as a continuation of the WEO program for teaching in underserved areas of the world.Arrival in Uganda was followed by a 4‐hour drive with the last hour on a dirt road. I was awed when I saw the Surgical Facility that he built. This is a free standing multiroom fully self contained one story building with two fully equipped operating rooms and intake areas, assessment rooms, teaching and conference rooms with a recovery room to rival any in the US. The power is supplied by solar panels and there is a purification system for well water: the waste disposal system is highly advanced.The chief surgeon, Dr. Joseph Damoi, greeted me along with six other Ugandan surgeons who traveled from various parts of the country to attend “Endoscopy Camp.” None had any prior experience in endoscopy and wanted to learn some basic techniques which they may use to further develop some skills in endoscopy if and when their hospitals acquired endoscopic equipment. The first day was spent in orientation to flexible endoscopy and me demonstrating both upper and lower procedures in one of the air‐conditioned operating rooms. I had previously requested an Olympus demo tower and scopes which did almost not materialize because of customs but Mr. Hugo Craven (Olympus Dubai) fixed the problem and sent a very knowledgeable technician from Nigeria to assist in the setup. This was invaluable as he took great care to demonstrate safe handling and disinfection of the equipment and monitored several of the staff through the cleaning process. The rest of the week was one on one teaching with rotation between upper and lower procedures using the two scopes provided. Everyone had a chance at hands on practice. Safety was stressed in the OR as well as in my slide lectures and videos which started off each day.Dr. Marin traveled to Uganda with me, and I met with all 26 of the staff members, including doctors, nurses, technicians, clerks, maintenance people and administrators, each of whom were hired from the surrounding community which had no access to surgical care before Dr. Marin had the vision to build this Facility. International surgical development had always been a part of Dr. Marin’s plan as all of his Mount Sinai surgical residents rotate through a hospital in Honduras, and he also organized a full surgical team to travel to Haiti following a devastating hurricane.As I left Kyabirwa, Dr. Marin asked if I could continue to train Dr. Joseph in endoscopy when I returned to New York, but I was skeptical about the safety and practicality of long‐distance endoscopic teaching and that I would have to travel to the hospital to access the direct line that he installed at Kyabirwa. One of the prerequisites of the facility was to be able to televise procedures from Uganda to Mount Saini and the reverse as well. During the building phase of the facility, Dr. Marin had a 20‐mile trench dug (by hand) from Jinja, the nearest city, to install a high‐speed fiberoptic internet cable, the signal from which I could access from my home computer.I was concerned about the lag phase between what Dr. Joseph would do and what I instructed him to do, but my concerns disappeared with the first encounter where I logged in from home and the speed of transmission was instantaneous. I was able to view a split screen with his hands on one view and a simultaneous scope view from a camera aimed at the monitor screen atop the Olympus tower. Our two‐way conversation and the absence of any lag between what he was doing and what I was seeing gave me the feeling that I was right beside him, coaching his every move, just as if I were in the endoscopy suite at Mount Sinai teaching a procedure. We both see the same screen and I have a view of his hands: If I said, “push the forceps in a little bit further,” he immediately did so. The only difference is that I could not tap him on the shoulder when he used the up control when I said, “tip down.”Over the past several weeks, we have seen esophageal carcinoma, gastric atrophy, duodenal ulcer, colon tumor, diverticular disease and changed the diagnosis from dysphagia related to achalasia to food getting stuck at a Schatzki ring. Dr. Joseph has reached the ileocecal valve during every colonoscopy that we did together and is becoming much more comfortable with flexible endoscopic procedures, providing a service to the community that had not been possible before.Remote teaching of flexible endoscopy is possible and feasible. In these days where travel is difficult and the internet is becoming more and more a part of everybody’s lives due to the COVID‐19 virus, we can still reach out and teach in areas where usual teaching techniques are not currently possible and do it safely and well. Other students as
