Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol 129 (2022) 403−404
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Editorial
The importance of innovative curriculum design in medical education
The future of medicine is built on the quality of education our learner.4 Asynchronous learning ameliorates the difficulties in align-
young learners receive. This education needs to occur while clinicians ing learner and teacher schedules but reduces opportunities for real-
in all fields of medicine, including Allergy and Immunology (A/I), face time interaction and feedback.
competing demands to provide both state-of-the-art patient care and Challenges common to many clinician-educators working in an
outstanding medical education. Considerable time constraints for outpatient A/I elective include learners working with multiple pre-
physician educators and learners can impact the use of traditional ceptors over the course of the rotation, lack of a standardized rota-
educational strategies and make it challenging for anyone to keep tion-specific curriculum, and difficulty in finding time to teach in
up-to-date with the ever-growing and changing field of medical clinical settings.5,6 Medical educators in many fields have worked on
education.1,2 Medical education has received more attention as edu- best practices for providing curricula to their students and residents
cators and learners alike adapt to the impact of changes in technology to overcome these issues. One example is a study by Kassutto et al7 in
and practice models that have occurred in the past 5 to 10 years. The which they developed an asynchronous curriculum integrating Pul-
trend toward increasing virtual learning and other methods of pro- monary clinical cases into their rotation. The asynchronous educa-
viding education outside of the in-person setting is supported by tional opportunity received positive feedback from their learners.7
improving technology and has been intensified by the coronavirus Rosenberg et al5 explored 2 methods of asynchronous clinical educa-
disease 2019 pandemic. tion for learners who rotated in their A/I clinic to ensure education
Allergy and Immunology is primarily an outpatient field. Most was provided on key topics. The study compared a more traditional
medical student and resident rotations are in the inpatient settings, asynchronous learning technique of assigning learners’ medical
which can limit exposure to the field. Therefore, it is critical that the articles with another group who were provided with a case-based
time a student or resident spends on an A/I rotation is engaging and curriculum. The articles and the case-based curriculum reviewed
contains a thorough introduction to the field. Direct exposure to A/I similar important topics in A/I.5 The 2 arms of the study, article-based
is an opportunity to share the great depth and breadth of clinical care or case-based, were furthermore separated into a pediatric or adult
that is provided to patients of all ages, increase medical knowledge themes depending on the learners’ specific clinical rotation. These
on the large variety of allergic and immunologic diseases, and serve asynchronous learning approaches enabled education outside of the
as a portal for learners who might choose to pursue a career in A/I. standard clinic times and improved coverage of subject matter that
Fellowship programs and national organizations have considered might not have been found during patient care on the rotations. Stu-
how to increase the number of learners who choose to enter careers dents completed an identical age-based (adult or pediatric) pre- and
in A/I. Macy et al3 found that most pediatric residents who pursued post-rotation 15-question test. Importantly, they found that students
fellowship training had planned to specialize as early as their intern in both the article-based and the case-based curricula had an
year, but many had not picked their specific field until later in their improvement in test scores and successfully learned about topics in
training. Therefore, the decision to pursue a career in A/I often occurs A/I through an asynchronous education curriculum.5
after the learner has started their primary residency training. Though Medical education must be impactful to ensure that the next gen-
finding ways to increase the flow of young learners into the field is eration of learners is best prepared to provide excellent patient care.
an important goal, it is also essential to consider how to best provide It is essential that educators integrate innovative educational techni-
engaging A/I education to students and residents irrespective of the ques and learner preferences with effective traditional methods. In
field they choose for their career. fields of medicine, such as A/I, that have more limited exposure to
The current generation of students and trainees prefers a more young learners, the value of high-impact education cannot be under-
interactive approach to their learning compared with traditional stated. It is only through thoughtful studies in medical education
methods of education provided outside of the clinical settings. The such as the one performed by Rosenberg et al5 that best practices can
pandemic created a rapid need to provide education while limiting be defined. In 2003, Nelson Mandela said that “education is the most
in-person teaching sessions and prompted the field of medical educa- powerful weapon we can use to change the world.”8 Those who are
tion to expand its ability to teach virtually, including both synchro- educators in medicine recognize the significance of that statement
nous and asynchronous education. Synchronous learning is and that medical education is one of the most important aspects of
education in which students and instructors engage with each other one’s jobs outside of patient care. No matter how one teaches, live or
in real time and can be live or virtual. Asynchronous learning refers virtual, synchronous or asynchronous, educators will always need to
to education without real-time interaction between the teacher and evolve in how they work with learners to share their incredible pas-
sion for the field of medicine.
Disclosures: The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
Funding: The authors have no funding sources to report.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anai.2022.07.006
1081-1206/© 2022 American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
404 Editorial / Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol 129 (2022) 403−404
Rebecca Scherzer, MD 3. Macy ML, Leslie LK, Boyer D, Van KD, Freed GL. Timing and stability of fellowship
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The Ohio State University Medical student education during the COVID-19 pandemic: initial experiences
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6. Pien LC, Colbert CY. Time to develop more clinician-educators in allergy and immu-
nology. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2020;145(2):456–462.
7. Kassutto SM, Dine CJ, Kreider M, Shah RJ. Changing the ambulatory training para-
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