Assessing the Use of Twitter to Share Canadian Residency Match Information During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Purpose In their final year, medical students explore prospective residency programs by completing visiting electives and attending interviews during the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) process. Due to COVID-19, visiting electives and in-person interviews were suspended, leaving residency programs searching for alternate ways to share CaRMS information with applicants. This study evaluates the utility of Twitter to share CaRMS-related information prior to and during the pandemic. Methods Primary tweets published from three CaRMS cycles between 2018 and 2021 were identified using the analytics tool Vicinitas. The type, content, and language of tweets and the date and location of publication were extracted. Demographic data about tweet creators were determined using provincial regulatory college databases and institutional websites. Descriptive statistics were employed for categorical variables. All tweets were deductively analyzed. Results Of the 1,843 tweets, 603, 472, and 768 were published during the 2018-2019, 2019-2020, and 2020-2021 cycles, respectively. Most tweets were written in English (97.4%) and by medical students (29.5%) affiliated with Ontario universities. The most common types of tweets were supportive messages (29.1%), reflections about CaRMS (24.7%), and positive match results (20.8%). Rurally located institutions experienced the greatest increase in the total number of tweets between the pre- and full-COVID cycles. Conclusion Since COVID-19, Twitter has been increasingly used by medical professionals to share CaRMS-related information, primarily to promote programs and advertise CaRMS events. Given the environmental and financial benefits, CaRMS interviews will likely remain virtual, which highlights the ongoing need for residency programs to use social media platforms to share information with prospective applicants.

"I just was really scared, because it's already such an uncertain time": Exploring women's abortion experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.

OBJECTIVE: Travel restrictions, physical distancing and quarantine requirements, lockdowns, and stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19 have impacted abortion services across Canada. We aimed to explore the decision-making and care experiences of those who obtained abortion services during the COVID-19 pandemic and understand recent abortion patients' perspectives on demedicalized models of medication abortion service delivery. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted 23 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with women across Canada who obtained abortion care after March 15, 2020. We audio-recorded and transcribed the telephone/Skype/Zoom interviews and managed our data with ATLAS.ti. We analyzed the English-language interviews for content and themes using inductive and deductive techniques. RESULTS: The COVID-19 pandemic, and the associated economic and social support uncertainties, factored into many of our participants' decisions to obtain an abortion. Participants expressed relief and gratitude for being able to secure abortion care during the pandemic. Although women in our study reflected positively on their abortion care experiences, many felt that service delivery changes initiated because of the public health emergency exacerbated pre-COVID-19 barriers to care and contributed to feelings of loneliness and isolation. Our participants expressed considerable enthusiasm for demedicalized models of medication abortion care, including telemedicine services and behind-the-counter availability of mifepristone/misoprostol. CONCLUSIONS: For our participants, abortion care constituted an essential health service. Our findings demonstrate the importance of continuing to provide access to safe, effective, and timely abortion care during public health emergencies. Exploring additional models of demedicalized medication abortion service delivery to address persistent access barriers in Canada is warranted. IMPLICATIONS: Policymakers and clinicians should consider patient experiences as well as clinical evidence when considering regulatory changes to facilitate access to abortion care during public health emergencies. Identifying a multitude of ways to offer a full range of abortion services, including demedicalized models of medication abortion care, has the potential to meet significant needs in the COVID-19 era and beyond. The COVID pandemic highlights the need for demedicalized models, not only for the sake of those seeking abortion care but also to ease the burden on medical professionals during public health emergencies.