I strongly feel that this pandemic would be a wake up call for relevant changes in curricula across the globe. Special training dealing with disease outbreaks and natural disasters must be incorporated in routine medical curricula so that medical students are better prepared to aid and eventually lead health-care teams. Several medical schools, including Harvard Medical School, the University of Colorado School of Medicine etc already have such pandemic preparedness exercise.

It has become an experience for the whole world and it is an experiment towards development if countries want it

This pandemic has taught all of us a lot about life , health and hygiene. Sincerity, hard work and dedication of doctors and medical scientists is really commendable in facing, fighting and controlling the infection in the best possible way. But the Post pandemic world is not going to be the same as it was before. Extensive research is going on for the vaccine. Medical science is definitely getting prepared to deal with such pandemic, not now but for all time to come.

thanks all. adding upto this i think medical education will see more of simulation based , online curriculum and as suggested pandemic preparedness scenarios need to be added along with self care of the medical students.

As per the latest recommendations of the Indian government, online classes are not the ideal way take classes for MBBS students. Also it has been told that all end semester and final university promotion examinations have to be taken with the student being present physically. The online mode is a novel method but cant replace the old traditional method of teaching. Instead we can incorporate newer methods in traditional teaching like flipboard, simulation based and case based scenarios. MBBS teaching is a patient student learning relationship and basic subjects practical and clinical postings cant be replaced by laptops and desktops.

Monika Pathania that is an excellent question and of course the easy answer is yes. That being said I think it is somewhat of a contingency answer. COVID has taught us a number of educational possibilities that were heretofore

not considered, not possible, or just not understood. On the flip side, there are a number of inherent barriers in post-COVID medical education that may diminish it regardless of modality.

We might quibble about the status quo but regardless of the definition, I think we can agree it has been disrupted. If you are looking for a variety of perspectives, The Journal of Literacy and Technology has just published a rapid response journal on this very subject (suddenly online education, not medical education specifically). I will be the first to admit that some of the findings are not the perfect answer that everyone is looking for. However, they do speak to the point that whether we like it or not, the educational world (technology-heavy or light) has fundamentally been disrupted. The scholarship within the journal was created by people in the pandemic, for people in the pandemic.

If you want a more expansive look at the issues, it might be helpful as an expose on first findings in suddenly online research. The first article covers a number of issues but one that I think is crucial, and certainly relevant to your discussion, is we don't know what we don't know. How does a meteoric expansion of remote education experience impact overall pedagogy? At first glance, it may seem like a huge plus but after some deconstruction, it may be a minus with educators buying into the illusion that it is just as good or better than as it always has been. Article The Journal of Literacy and Technology Special Issue for Sud...

No - no lasting changes, in terms of preparedness to create changes. The world has experienced many pandemics prior to this one and people remain ill-prepared for the one that follows. And on course, there can be no pre-conceived idea of what that pandemic may be - it is not beyond the bounds of reality that there could be one that wipes out out entire species, we so-called Homo sapiens. It's the "sapiens" part that is problematic. I am sorry to sound so depressing about it but humanity will just put this one behind it and whether the next one arrives in 5 years or 50 years it will come as a shock. The other thing is that overpopulation is playing a major part in spreading this virus, and that doesn't seem likely to be reduced in any dramatic way. Young people beginning to study medicine will be sanguine about the possibilities as all young people are. And there is no hint that the world will become a fairer place after this pandemic, and one must take into consideration that people who study (and teach) medicine are a significant part of an elite.

As with all things of this nature, there are threats as well as opportunities. There is talk in some circles of "the big (world economic etc.) reset" that is on the horizon. What this will be remains to be seen, though I shudder to think of what some cabals may have up their sleeves. As an American I trust in the law and have hope in it. So far, humans have not fully adapted to this virus. As with most viruses, there's a mortality rate, a non-effected population subset, and a getting-used-to subset. Then there's the vaccine, but as with all such illnesses, the virus' DNA re-combinates constantly, making it useful only after a mortality peak. Any talk of a miracle injection or pill resides faith that human society can overcome nature ( which was the political voodoo behind finding a "cure for AIDS" BTW). OK: the greed factor, manipulated via bad US law (Bayh-Dole Act) and US-Chinese competition/greed, has placed this albatross firmly on the world's back - and both China AND the US are guilty, as well as several other players - all of it tied to Big Pharma. But the opportunities for not just the medical establishment but many other societal filters are there, too: what the world's been going through for the last several months ought to be documented for future study reference in case a natural virus appears unexpected in the future. This to study psychology of stress, temporary government control, logistics, etc. That is, provided an end to this horror occurs: who knows what Frankenstein and Dr. Faustus created in those labs, for sure?

It is most certain that there was nothing "natural" about Covid-19. People are dying in the millions because, since 1984, it has been personally profitable for US government researchers to enrich themselves and friends (and, of course, competitors) from, "quote," vaccines - not that the French Academy, the Chinese military etc. in the main are any less guilty. Originally they used a naturally-occurring retrovirus, H-i, to monkey around with for finding "miracle drugs" for AIDS and now, this! This one, being much more abominable that the H-iv /AIDS situation, since Covid-19 isn't related to lifestyle choices that get you into a pickle. All you have to be now, is born, in order to die from it. H-i is not connected to AIDS, even if the belief system for "finding a cure for AIDS" such that persons would not have to change their sex-drug lifestyles was very strong. President Reagan even created a government office for its research in c. 1985. What we're all paying for, now, is monkeying with a naturally-occurring retrovirus at dangerous research levels, in the belief that "it" (H-i) is something dangerous, when in fact, it is not the case. What WAS the case, in one instance, was launching viruses off the back of H-i that were natural, just to see what it would do from one vertebrate (a bat) to the next (a primate). We've found out.

It's a really good topic to discuss. For last 7 months, we are observing a abrupt disruption of education system all over the world. Medical schools are trying to minimize the damages through virtual learning process. But virtual class alone can't replace traditional learning process of medical students. Future physicians need to be competent and skillfull, and for these bed side teaching is needed. Another thing, fee topics like I infectious disease, public health mitigation, infection prevention among healthcare professionals might be get more attention in future curriculum.

The whole world is waiting for this pandemic to end and start with our normal lives again. Although online teaching has helped us in a great deal by reaching out to the students in this time of crisis and panic, it will never be able to replace the traditional classroom teaching method which has been in practice since ages.