THE POTENTIAL OF THE “SCHOOL OF EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE” PLATFORM FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF OTOLARYNGOLOGISTS

The paper is devoted to the urgent need for the modernization of the system of higher medical education and its integration into the World educational space. The introduction of the system of continuing professional development for medical specialists has put new demands on teaching technologies and training format, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mastering the learning material depends on the effec-tiveness of interaction between the participants in the teaching and learning process. Its ultimate objective is to obtain the competencies that ensure specialists' profes-sional development in their further independent practice. The result depends on teaching technology; needless to say, however, the choice of teaching technology depends on the field of education. This is especially true for medi-cal education, where teaching involves both theory and practice. Therefore, medical education platforms are promising; for example, “School of Evidence-Based Medicine” that is an online information resource due to which providers and recipients of medical education can interact. The platform offers various methods of direct and online interaction including live streaming confer-ences, broadcasting recorded video lectures, articles, chatbots, as well as provides for the control of the knowledge acquired (e-tests). The aim of the research: to analyze the poten-tial of the “School of Evidence-Based Medicine” plat-form for acquiring professional diagnostic skills in oto-rhinolaryngology. A series of lectures and case reports were pre-pared, recorded, and delivered to otorhinolaryngologists for the purpose of their acquisition of professional com-petencies in diagnostics. To familiarize otolaryngologists with the possibilities of imaging diagnostic methods in visualizing diseases of the nose and paranasal sinuses, the authors prepared a series of short informative lectures. The lectures devoted to the diagnosis of asthma, or aspirin triad and paranasal sinus mycosis were prepared and delivered by two lecturers (an otolaryngologist and a radiologist), that ensured the acquisition of competencies in all the methods for diagnosing this pathology. After presenting theoretical material, single case reports were offered to physicians for the purpose of mastering and improving the competencies. On October 16-17, 2020, an online event “EPOS CONGRESS 2020 Focus: Rhinosinusitis” was held on the “School of Evidence-Based Medicine” platform in accordance with COVID-19 quarantine restrictions. After listening to the congress reports and using the materials to which our paper is devoted, otolaryngologists had the opportunity to be tested and obtain the certificate, thereby earning 30 Continuing Professional Development points in 2020. An undeniable advantage of online educational platforms is the ability to quickly analyze the characteris-tics of attendees. In total, there were 4,502 physicians who registered for the conference. There were held 9,476 sessions, i.e., on average 1 physician returned to the site to watch the conference three times over two days. Ac-cording to the analysis made, we can conclude that young doctors are those who are mainly interested in new methods of continuing professional development. Most of the attendees (98.33%) were from Ukraine. The vast majority of doctors (72.3%) used their cell phones to watch the conference. The developed and proposed method can be used for improving professional competencies of otorhi-nolaryngologists.