On Monday, 22 November 2021, Sechenov University hosted the online conference ‘Medical Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Routes for Digital Transformation’.

Tatiana Litvinova, Sechenov University’s Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, delivered a keynote speech. She talked about how to better organise educational activities, practicums for students, and quality control in education — in the light of digital transformation and social changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her speech, Tatiana Litvinova highlighted the growing demand for the digital services offered by Sechenov University. Our special website, dl.sechenov.ru, contains 4,728 pre-recorded lectures and 906 MOOC and SPOC courses. We also have a digital library, rucml.ru, which is visited by over 47,000 users weekly. Since distance learning has become common, the popularity of our digital library has grown by 96%.

Sechenov University’s Institute of Social Sciences — represented by Andrey Reshetnikov, Director of the Institute, and Nadezhda Prisyazhnaya, Deputy Director for Research — presented the recent findings on the social perception of medical education during the pandemic. In particular, students were surveyed to evaluate their thoughts about hybrid learning.

The sociology report included responses from 36,000 participants — students at Russian universities. Among these, 11% were foreign nationals studying in Russia. The results show that 72.4% of Russian nationals approved hybrid learning, while only 53.3% of foreign nationals shared the same view.

Marina Kinkulkina, Director of Sechenov University’s Institute of Electronic Medical Education, spoke about digitalisation, changes in medical education, needs of digital technologies in education, and the Sechenov.Online website. She also said that the Institute’s course on adaptive chemistry received praise from the experts at Moscow School of Management Skolkovo. Adaptive courses allow students to shape their individual educational trajectories.

In December, the Institute of Electronic Medical Education will launch a new online course on end-to-end digital technologies in medicine.

During the conference, the participants discussed various aspects of digital transformation, as well as a research project which would support a quality management system for higher education during the pandemic.

The conference was organised by Sechenov University and Tomsk State University (Russia). The event welcomed members of the academic community, teachers at medical schools, healthcare managers, and specialists in sociology of medicine.