At Akash Hospital we conduct a range of training programs for surgeons through lectures, workshops and residency programs that are conducted either at our headquarters in Indore (India) or in conferences around the world. We invite experts from across the world and the Training focusses on practical considerations during surgery. With the imposition of travel restrictions we took the opportunity to test digital mediums for the continuation of our training programs. I would like to take this opportunity for everyone who participated in Rhinoplasty Classes.
We conducted a series of webinars discussing topics in the practice of Rhinoplasty. Across the 7 sessions we conducted: we averaged ~250 unique viewers a session from 55+ countries. We had a median view time of between 30–45 minutes and 40% of our viewers returned for another session. Session length varied between 1–1.5 hours with 30 minutes at the end for Questions and Answers from the audience. Also 100% of the audience who responded to our post-webinar polls wanted additional sessions.
While online training can't replace hands-on training I found that communicating ideas through webinars had some advantages over presentations in conferences:
More time: Every speakers can get 20-30 minutes plus Q&A which is in most cases more than the 10-15 minutes that we speak in conferences
More video content: We are able to utilize video content more effectively and this was actually one of the most requested item in a webinar
Better audience interaction: We had an average of 30-40 minutes of Questions and Answers during our webinars which was very encouraging for us as trainers.
Engage more faculty: In our webinars we had faculty sitting out of Brazil, Oman, Iran, UK, Italy, Portugal, India and Turkey speaking.
We were also able to adapt topics based on what the audience was requesting and we covered a very broad range including:
Pediatric Septoplasty and Sept-Rhinoplasty,
Strategies in management of caudal septal deviation,
Rhinoplasty in thick skin,
External rhinoplasty,
Closed rhinoplasty,
Grafts in rhinoplasty,
Segmental septal reconstruction,
Suture techniques in Nasal Tip-Plasty,
Nasal septal perforation repair,
Dorsal augmentation,
Dorsal preservation rhinoplasty,
Nasal dorsal reduction technique,
Nasal valve collapse,
The Alar - columellar relationship,
Options to correct external nasal valve,
Non-surgical Rhinoplasty
I would like to thank all the experts from around the world who helped make this first try at digital teaching a success. We are planning on incorporating aspects of digital interaction into our workshops so that we can create a more engaging and fruitful interaction with our trainees.
I hope you are safe and wish you well.