Abstract
In December 2019, the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged
in China and spread rapidly around the world, resulting in a pandemic
declared by the World Health Organization in March 2020. The disease has
affected more than 11 million people in Brazil, with more than 265.000
deaths to date, as we are now facing a second wave of infections.
Regarding medical assistance and training, it turned out to be a great
challenge, since - among other things - many residents were relocated to
respiratory units to treat patients with COVID-19. Even though the
residency programs situation has become chaotic all around the world and
the activities in almost all specialties nearly stopped (especially in
surgical specialties), the need to reinvent the way of teaching was the
best concern. Worldwide the “webinars fever” was an impulse to try new
strategies to fulfill the gaps of knowledge of these future specialists.
It is crucial to call to the responsibility put on medical training
institutions to prepare these new professionals according the principles
of evidence-based medicine, surgical proficiency and patient safety.