Additional languages:
– Click here for the survey in French
– Click here for the survey in Spanish
About this survey
The COVID-19 (Novel coronavirus) pandemic has seen increased demands to healthcare systems and has resulted in changes to the workforce. We want to understand how rheumatology trainees worldwide have been affected due to these changes and assess the impact of COVID-19 on rheumatology training globally.
How this survey works
This is a one-off survey consisting of a number of sections which will focus on different aspects of your rheumatology training during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Who is eligible to participate?
All physicians doing rheumatology as part of their job description, who have not completed their rheumatology training or who completed training in 2020, are invited to complete this survey.
Who is running the survey?
The survey is sponsored by an international collaborative, the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance, which includes a large group of academics, clinicians, and patients working together. The survey was developed by physicians, including rheumatology trainees, with patient representative input, to better understand how rheumatology training has been affected during this pandemic.
The survey is being conducted and managed by doctors and researchers from Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia (Principal Investigator Arundathi Jayatilleke, MD) and University College London, United Kingdom (Principal Investigator Dr Pedro Machado.
Full ethical approval has been granted by the Institutional Review Board at Temple University Hospital (protocol 27279), by the National Research Ethics Committee for COVID-19, Ireland (application number 20-NREC-COV-073), and University College London Research Ethics Committee (UCL ethics approval ID 18859/001).
International data (non-United Kingdom/non-European Economic Area) will be hosted on a REDCap database at Temple University Hospital.
United Kingdom/European Economic Area data will be hosted on a REDCap database at University College London. Any queries regarding this should be directed to:
United Kingdom Principal Investigator
Dr Pedro Machado
University College London Research Ethics Committee
University College London Data Protection team
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS SURVEY
Why should I join this survey?
At present, we do not know how doctors in training have been affected by COVID-19. We want to particularly understand how rheumatology training has been affected, especially as some trainees may have been redeployed to the general internal medicine service during this period. We hope that your experiences in how COVID-19 has affected your rheumatology training can help us understand how rheumatology trainees have been affected. We hope that this information will help institutions and individuals involved in providing rheumatology training to structure rheumatology training accordingly and address any issues in training which have arisen due to COVID-19.
What will happen with the information I provide?
Your anonymous data, along with that of other participants, will be analyzed together to improve our understanding of how COVID-19 has affected rheumatology trainees. Individual participants will never be identified. We will not collect any personal information that would allow you to be identified. We plan to present the results of our study in medical and scientific conferences, as well as publish our conclusions in various medical journals. We also present interim results on this website (rheum-covid.org).
How will my privacy be protected?
All of your responses will be anonymous, meaning that the researchers won’t know who you are. We are not collecting any information that will allow you to be identified. Your data will be collected in a secure database accessible only by study staff.
How much time will I need to devote to this survey?
The survey will take 8-15 minutes to complete, depending on your responses.
What kinds of questions will I be asked?
We will ask you general questions regarding your rheumatology training pre-COVID-19 and your rheumatology training experiences during COVID-19. We will also ask you questions regarding how your well-being has been affected during COVID-19. We will then ask you questions about your experiences with in-person rheumatology training, telemedicine, research, and experiences in your training program during the COVID-19 pandemic. There will also be a free text box for additional comments you would like to make regarding your experiences during this pandemic which have not been covered in our survey. You are not obliged to provide any comments in this box and we ask that you do not include any information which will enable you to be identified.
Do I have to respond to this survey?
You are under no obligation to respond to this survey.
Will there be any risks to my privacy?
We ask that you do not include any information in free text comment boxes which will enable you to be identified.
We will not collect any personal information as part of this survey (such as names, ages, gender, ethnicity, institution, email addresses, IP addresses, etc). Researchers conducting this study will never know your identity.
By completing this survey, you are identifying yourself as being a rheumatology trainee. If you decide to share with others that you participated in this study, you will be sharing the fact that you are a rheumatology trainee.
Will my professional registration be at risk?
We will not collect any personal information which will enable you to be identifiable by your employers or any other professional bodies.
Will my data ever be sold to third parties?
Your data will never be sold to anyone, ever. The data will only be used by our group of academics, community rheumatologists, patients, and patient organizations to understand how rheumatology trainees have been affected by COVID-19.
By clicking the link below and entering the survey, you agree that:
1. I am aged 18 or over.
2. I am a rheumatology trainee.
3. I consent to participate in this survey study.
If you are in the United Kingdom or European Economic Area country, please click here to take the COVID-19 GRA Rheumatology Trainee Survey.If you are in the United States or a non-United Kingdom/European Economic Area country, please click here to take the COVID-19 GRA Rheumatology Trainee Survey.