COVID-19: A Time Like No Other in (the Department of) Neurological Surgery

World Neurosurg. 2021 Apr:148:256-262. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2020.11.166.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted lives and indelibly impacted the practice of medicine since emerging as a pandemic in March 2020. For neurosurgery departments throughout the United States, the pandemic has created unique challenges across subspecialties in devising methods of triage, workflow, and operating room safety. Located in New York City, at the early epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis, the Weill Cornell Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery was disrupted and challenged in many ways, requiring adaptations in clinical operations, workforce management, research, and education. Through our department's collective experience, we offer a glimpse at how our faculty and administrators overcame obstacles, and transformed in the process, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Education; Neurosurgery; New York City; Pandemic; Redeployment.

MeSH terms

  • Academic Medical Centers
  • Biomedical Research
  • COVID-19*
  • Delivery of Health Care*
  • Education, Distance*
  • Faculty, Medical
  • Health Personnel
  • Hospital Departments
  • Humans
  • Neurosurgery / education
  • Neurosurgery / methods
  • Neurosurgery / organization & administration*
  • Neurosurgical Procedures*
  • New York City
  • Operating Rooms
  • Personnel Management
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Teleworking*
  • Triage
  • Webcasts as Topic
  • Workflow