DT03: Virtual undergraduate dermatology teaching using head-mount camera video

Louise McKenna, Lisa Kirby and Grant Wylie

Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, UK

Undergraduate clinical dermatology teaching in our hospital was delivered pre-COVID-19 to fourth-year medical students via an objective structured clinical examination-style circuit education session, with preselected live patients displaying important clinical presentation signs. A combination of posters, quizzes and interactive stations (e.g. topical therapy application and cryotherapy demonstration) were also used. Feedback for this consultant-delivered clinical teaching session was always excellent. However, this format did not lend itself easily to virtual teaching when COVID-19 forced immediate changes to undergraduate teaching delivery. A particular, understandable anxiety specifically reported by students was the loss of ‘hands-on’ clinical teaching with patients. Despite COVID-19 restrictions, a significant number of our face-to-face clinics continued and so to harness these clinical teaching opportunities, both live and recorded patient video interactions were arranged. With local university and health-board approval, we obtained written patient consent to record consultations and used secure portals offered by Microsoft Office 365 to display live videos or recorded consultations using a secure NHS Microsoft Teams group, which allowed storage of these teaching videos within its One Drive application. To mimic a ‘hands-on’ patient interaction, a head-mount (temporal), wireless, 4 K camera was used to mirror the view of the clinician. For skin lesion consultations, ring lamp and dermoscopy magnification examination could also be included (additional still images could also be added retrospectively to any offline video edit). Full-skin examination and general dermatology findings, such as rash pattern and distribution, were highlighted. Some surgical procedures were also recorded, including local anaesthesia infiltration, skin excisions and curettage, as well as cryotherapy administration and topical therapy application. Despite novice use of this teaching technique, video quality was good and feedback excellent, with students appreciating the efforts made to provide interactive clinical teaching during an unprecedented time. Limited existing literature highlighting the use of such teaching models has mainly come from its application in postgraduate surgical specialty intraoperative teaching. We hope the merits of these techniques can be applied to current undergraduate dermatology teaching methodology. We plan to continue to record further clinical consultations to expand our existing teaching video portfolio and are likely to continue to use this as an adjunct resource in our undergraduate teaching delivery. Depending on student feedback, we may consider future professional video recording methods from our university and medical illustration colleagues.