Documents found
-
50861.
-
50862.
-
-
-
50865.
-
-
-
50868.More information
Introduction: With the COVID-19 pandemic, most continuing medical education activities became virtual (VCME). The authors conducted a scoping review to synthesize the advantages and disadvantages of VCME to establish the impact of this approach on inequities that physicians face along the intersections of gender, race, and location of practice. Methods: Guided by the methodological framework of Arksey and O’Malley, the search included six databases and was limited to studies published between January 1991 to April 2021. Eligible studies included those related to accredited/non-accredited post-certification medical education, conferences, or meetings in a virtual setting focused on physicians. Numeric and inductive thematic analyses were performed. Results: 282 studies were included in the review. Salient advantages identified were convenience, favourable learning formats, collaboration opportunities, effectiveness at improving knowledge and clinical practices, and cost-effectiveness. Prominent disadvantages included technological barriers, poor design, cost, lack of sufficient technological skill, and time. Analysis of the studies showed that VCME was most common in the general/family practice specialty, in suburban settings, and held by countries in the Global North. A minority of studies reported on gender (35%) and race (4%). Discussion: Most studies report advantages of VCME, but disadvantages and barriers exist that are contextual to the location of practice and medical subspecialty. VCME events are largely organized by Global North countries with suboptimized accessibility for Global South attendees. A lack of reported data on gender and race reveals a limited understanding of how VCME affects vulnerable populations, prompting potential future considerations as it evolves.
-
50870.More information
AbstractGrowth data from precise surveys have been obtained for 11 pingos for periods ranging from 20 to 26 years. Most of the 1350 pingos, perhaps one quarter of the world's total, have grown up in the bottoms of drained lakes underlain by sands. Permafrost aggradation on the drained lake bottoms has resulted in pore water expulsion, solute rejection below the freezing front, a freezing point depression, and groundwater flow at below 0° C to one or more residual ponds, the sites of pingo growth. Sub-pingo water lenses underlie many growing pingos.The pure ice which grows by downward freezing in a sub-pingo water lens may be composed of seasonal growth bands which, like tree rings, are of potential use in the study of past climates. Growing pingos underlain by sub-pingo water lenses can often be identified by features such as peripheral pingo rupture, spring flow, frost mound growth, normal faulting, and oscillations in pingo height. Such features, and others, are associated with hydrofracturing and water loss from a sub-pingo water lens. Some of the data derived from the long-term study of pingo growth are relevant to the identification of collapse features, interpreted as paleo pingos, in areas now without permafrost.