JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has stunted medical education activities with most conferences being cancelled or postponed. To continue professional education during this crisis, an alternative is conducting online conferences with live streaming and an audience interaction platform.

Objective:

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has affected human connection globally. Conventional conferences have been replaced by online conferences. However, online conferencing has its challenges and limitations. This manuscript reports the logistics and preparations required for converting an international onsite multidisciplinary conference into a completely online conference within 3 weeks during this pandemic.

Methods:

The program was revised, and teleconference system, live recording, director system setup, and broadcast platform were arranged to enable the online conference.

Results:

We used YouTube and WeChat for the online conference. Of the 24 hours of the conventional conference, 21.5 hours were retained in the online conference (89.6%) with live broadcasting. The conference was attended by 71.7% of the original international faculty and 71.6% of the overall faculty. In total, 61 presentations (92% of the original number) were delivered. A special session “Dialysis access management under the impact of viral epidemics” was added to replace precongress workshops and competitions. The conference received 1810, 1452, and 1008 visits on YouTube and 6777, 4623, and 3100 visits on WeChat on days 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

Conclusions:

Switching a conventional onsite conference to a completely online format within a short period is a feasible way to maintain professional education in a socially responsible manner during a pandemic.