The impact of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic on educational and professional growth of young Italian epileptologists: a survey of the Young Epilepsy Section-Italian chapter.

Objectives: In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus-related disease SARS-CoV-2 infection pandemic. Italy was one of the most affected countries and managed the emergency also by a health care reorganization.

Methods: The Education and Career Development Task Force of the Young Epilepsy Section-Italy (YES-I) designed a survey to assess the impact of the pandemic on the training and work of young epileptologists (< 40 years).

Results: Fifty-three responses were collected: 45.3% were resident, 9.4% PhD students and the remainder specialists. Clinical activity changed for most (83%) during the pandemic. Educational activity at epilepsy centers was reduced for 35.8% of the survey participants, while 30.2% of research projects involving patients participation were stopped to switch mainly to COVID-19-related research. For 73.6% of survey participants, attending online courses and congresses was easier in terms of cost and organization, although for 50.9% the level of training was lower in quality. In contrast, 58.5% rated the webinars organized by YES-I very educational. Less than 50% of the clinicians used telemedicine in the pandemic period and continue to use it. Despite several positive aspects of virtual medicine, a small number (32.1%) of our interviewees were satisfied from telemedicine and few of them (30.2%) reported that it led to improvement of clinical practice.

Conclusions: Our survey showed that the pandemic has had a negative impact on training, research and clinical activity in the epilepsy field; moreover, it underlined the critical aspects of virtual communication methods in order to improve its use for the future.