COVID-19 has had a profound effect on the medical community, not least on how continued medical education is offered and carried out. With social distancing and hygiene regulations restricting human interaction, it was clear that AO CMF had to rethink its educational offerings, to ensure that we still do what we do best: Offer state-of-the-art education to the thousands of surgeons in our network, despite the current obstacles to on-site, hands-on courses.
The AO CMF Online Campus now offers multiple different formats, ranging from expert case discussions to regionally focused AO CMF Study Clubs. However, we are constantly working on exciting new formats. We now have a dedicated group of online faculty who will be specially trained to deliver education in the online world. Looking back over the past few months, an especially noteworthy event was the special session on July 25–26, with nearly 2,000 participants, in recognition of World Head and Neck Cancer Day.
In April, the AO CMF Online Campus focus was on reconstructive surgery. In May, the focus was on orthognathic surgery, and in June we tackled trauma. With over 20,000 surgeons tuning in from all the world, we believe this is only the beginning of the success of the AO CMF Online Campus, and we're excited to further develop this exciting new online learning environment with you—our distinguished faculty members.
