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BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic caused graduate medical education (GME) programs to pivot to virtual interviews (VIs) for recruitment and selection. This systematic review synthesizes the rapidly expanding evidence base on VIs, providing insights into preferred formats, strengths, and weaknesses.MethodsPubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, ERIC, PsycINFO, MedEdPublish, and Google Scholar were searched from 1 January 2012 to 21 February 2022. Two authors independently screened titles, abstracts, full texts, performed data extraction, and assessed risk of bias using the Medical Education Research Quality Instrument. Findings were reported according to Best Evidence in Medical Education guidance.ResultsOne hundred ten studies were included. The majority (97%) were from North America. Fourteen were conducted before COVID-19 and 96 during the pandemic. Studies involved both medical students applying to residencies (61%) and residents applying to fellowships (39%). Surgical specialties were more represented than other specialties. Applicants preferred VI days that lasted 4-6 h, with three to five individual interviews (15-20 min each), with virtual tours and opportunities to connect with current faculty and trainees. Satisfaction with VIs was high, though both applicants and programs found VIs inferior to in-person interviews for assessing 'fit.' Confidence in ranking applicants and programs was decreased. Stakeholders universally noted significant cost and time savings with VIs, as well as equity gains and reduced carbon footprint due to eliminating travel.ConclusionsThe use of VIs for GME recruitment and selection has accelerated rapidly. The findings of this review offer early insights that can guide future practice, policy, and research.

BackgroundThe coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has been a source of disruption, changing the face of medical education. In response to infection control measures at the University of California, San Diego, the hybrid in-person and recorded preclerkship curriculum was converted to a completely virtual format. The impact of this exclusive virtual teaching platform on the quality of trainee education is unknown.ObjectiveTo determine the efficacy of a virtual course, relative to traditional hybrid in-person and recorded teaching, and to assess the impact of supplementary educational material on knowledge acquisition.MethodsA retrospective observational cohort study was performed to assess an introductory course, held mostly in person in 2019 versus completely virtual in 2020, for first-year medical students and second-year pharmacy students at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.ResultsThe midterm and final examination scores were similar for the hybrid and virtual courses. There was no association between the hours of recorded lectures watched and final examination scores for either course. In the 2019 in-person and recorded course, students who demonstrated consistent on-time use of practice quizzes scored statistically higher on the final examination (P = 0.0066). In the 2020 virtual course, students who downloaded quizzes regularly had statistically higher scores on the midterm examination (P

Deforestation creates gaps in forest habitat, which can limit the movements of many avian species. Increased predation risk associated with crossing open habitats is often considered the primary impediment to crossing gaps. However, other factors such as energetic reserves may also influence these decisions. We conducted playback experiments before and after supplemental feeding of Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766)) to investigate how energetic reserves influenced gap-crossing decisions. Black-capped Chickadees were less likely to respond to playbacks, whether conducted within forests or across gaps, after supplemental feeding. This suggests that energetic reserves may have less influence on gap-crossing decisions than on the willingness of birds to respond to mobbing calls in general. We recommend that future studies investigating gap-crossing decisions using playbacks account for differences in resource availability among sampling locations, especially when making comparisons across discrete habitats. Key words: Black-capped Chickadee, Poecile atricapillus, playback, gap-crossing decisions, energetic reserves, habitat fragmentation, movement. La deforestation cree des trouees dans les habitats forestiers qui peuvent limiter les deplacements de nombreuses especes d'oiseaux. Le risque de predation accru associe au franchissement d'habitats ouverts est souvent considere comme etant le principal obstacle au franchissement de trouees. D'autres facteurs, tels que les reserves energetiques, peuvent toutefois aussi influencer ces decisions. Nous avons mene des experiences de rediffusion de cris avant et apres des supplementations de nourriture donnees a des mesanges a tete noire (Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766)) afin d'examiner l'influence des reserves energetiques sur les decisions de franchissement de trouees. Les mesanges a tete noire etaient moins susceptibles de repondre a la rediffusion de cris, qu'elle soit effectuee dans la foret et dans des trouees, apres une supplementation. Cela donne a penser que les reserves energetiques pourraient exercer moins d'influence sur les decisions de franchissement de trouees que sur la volonte des oiseaux de repondre a des cris de houspillage en general. Nous recommandons que les etudes futures qui utilisent la rediffusion de cris pour examiner les decisions de franchissement de trouees tiennent compte des differences de disponibilite de ressources entre les lieux echantillonnes, en particulier lorsqu'il s'agit de comparer des habitats distincts. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles: mesange a tete noire, Poecile atricapillus, rediffusion de cris, decisions de franchissement de trouees, reserves energetiques, fragmentation d'habitat, deplacement., Introduction Gaps in forest habitat resulting from fragmentation can affect movement behaviours across a range of taxa (Haddad 1999; Villard et al. 1999; Collinge 2000; Desrochers and Fortin 2000; Belisle [...]