Impact of COVID-19 on patients with inflammatory bowel disease: Data from an international registry

Introduction: COVID -19 has caused significant disruption of our personal and professional lives across the world Within our specialty practice, it has caused major changes in how we deliver in- patient and outpatient services Endoscopy practice has been particularly affected with societal guidelines recommending variable restrictions on type and volume of procedures This has a profound impact on training in endoscopy We conducted a multi-national survey to assess the global impact of the pandemic on training in endoscopy Aims & Methods: The aim of our multi-national survey was to assess the impact of the pandemic on endoscopy training and measures required post pandemic to address any issues The survey was conducted using an online survey platform in the Asia Pacific and Europe Trainees in Endoscopy were invited to participate through major training centres or training leads in national societies A survey with 16 questions was designed with a focus on age, gender, year of training, experience in endoscopy prior to the pandemic and details of current training in endoscopy The respondents were also asked about the impact of the pandemic on their training, duration of impact and their opinions on how to address this post pandemic Results: 127 trainees responded to the survey from 13 countries in the Asia Pacific and Europe 76 3% were aged 25-34 years and 22% were between 35-44 years 27 5% who responded were women With regards to current level of training, 26 7% were in their first year, 19 7% in the 2nd year, 15 8% in the 3rd year and the rest in advanced fellowships 56% suggested that their focus of training was in upper and lower GI endoscopy and 10 24% on ERCP and EUS training 22% stated that their training was currently focussed on upper GI endoscopy A large majority (85 8%) responded that training had been impacted by the pandemic Furthermore, 80 7% of the respondents had training impacted for a significant duration of 1-3 months and only 4% longer than 3 months Nearly 54% trainees are performing < 20 procedures per month with 41% performing < 10 procedures Restricted case numbers (64 5%) and hospital policy (30%) were cited as the main reasons 28% stated that they did not receive adequate training in PPE use in endoscopy A third of respondents suggested that they are very concerned by the impact on training with another 40% moderately concerned More than half the trainees felt that they would not achieve the required competencies in training this year and two thirds propose that training centres and national societies should develop additional training measures post pandemic Of interest, nearly 40% suggested that this could be done with an extension of their training period vs 41 % suggesting other measures such as workshops Conclusion: The global impact of the pandemic on health care delivery and on the health and well being of essential workers is profound Gastroenterology is no exception to this, and the practice of endoscopy has been severely affected It is important to acknowledge the overall impact on our trainees Our survey was limited to a single aspect i e Endoscopy training This large multi-national survey emphasises the significance of the impact on training and the clear need for planning resources on improving this post pandemic There is an urgent need for all trainees in endoscopy to have adequate PPE training Additional resources for upskilling, extension of training where required, support with educational tools online as well as increased workshops require planning and funding by training centres and national societies