A Critical Review from the Perspective of 2 Years Thereafter of the Effectiveness of Revolutionary Changes in a Gastroenterology Division at a Medical School Teaching Hospital due to the Coronavirus Disease-2019 Pandemic: Gastrointestinal Physician Clinical Practice and Emotional Stresses, Gastrointestinal Graduate Medical Education, Gastrointestinal Professional Societies, and Pandemic Control.

"Conflict of interest The author declares no conflict of interest. Dr M.S. Cappell, as a member of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Advisory Committee for Gastrointestinal Drugs, 2013 to 2018,35 affirms that this paper does not discuss any proprietary, confidential, pharmaceutical data submitted to the FDA and reviewed by Dr M.S. Cappell. Dr M.S. Cappell was >4 years ago a member of the speaker’s bureau for AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo, co-marketers of Movantik. Dr M.S. Cappell had one-time consultancies for Mallinckrodt and Shire >3 years ago. This work does not discuss any drug manufactured or marketed by AstraZeneca, Daiichi Sankyo, Shire, or Mallinckrodt."

"Opinion: It was good to see some recovery of the educational week activities as the pandemic crisis eased in 2021.3.The Hospital in collaboration with the Medical School publishes annually a comprehensive compilation of scholarly activities, including publications (original articles, reviews, and case reports) published in peer-reviewed journals, articles in books, abstracts presented orally or as posters at national or international professional meetings, and invited talks or presentations at academic hospitals during the prior academic year for all residents, fellows, clinical attendings, and research faculty in all Divisions and Departments at all Beaumont Network Hospitals. The annual compilation of scholarly achievements for the academic year of 2019 was extremely delayed (until December 2020) and this compilation was only published virtually, without publication as a physical book, as had occurred in previous years. Publication of the annual 2020 scholarly achievements was published soon after the normally expected date (June 2021) with minor delays because of the declining pandemic impact and was disseminated virtually and was also not physically published.4.The American Gastroenterology Association normally holds an annual in-service examination for GI fellows that evaluates their cognitive skills in GI and hepatology via a 3-h-long examination using multiple choice questions in the fields of hepatology, esophagus, stomach, small bowel, colon, hepatobiliary tree, pancreas, and GI endoscopy. The grades of individual GI fellows are compared with that of their peers, stratified according to fellowship year of training. Normally a proctor is physically present in the room to proctor test-takers taking the test by computer. This annual examination provides GI fellows a valuable service by indicating how they compare with their peers in each individual subject to identify topics in which they are comparatively weak and may want to study further for the Board examination. The annual examination was not postponed but was changed from physical proctoring to remote proctoring of the computerized examinations due to the pandemic (March 2020 and March 2021). It was held virtually by computer by Internet, as in previous years, without any changes required because of the pandemic except for the remote proctoring.5.The major annual GI national/international professional conventions in 2020 were all scheduled as physical events in specific cities, including Digestive Disease Week sponsored by the American Gastroenterology Association and American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy scheduled for May 2020 in Chicago, Illinois; American College of Gastroenterology scheduled for October 2020 in Memphis, Tennessee; and American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases scheduled for November 2020 in Boston, Massachusetts. These conventions traditionally were massive affairs, sometimes exceeding 10,000 participants and involving hundreds of commercial exhibitors. These conventions were, however, all changed to virtual meetings conducted via the Internet in 2020 to reduce transmission of COVID-19 infection in crowded convention halls. Funding: None."