Medical Students as Essential Frontline Researchers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic hit the United States in March 2020, there was widespread disruption of clinical medical education: Hospital clerkships were suspended nationwide and students were moved out of the hospital and continued their studies remotely through virtual learning systems. Frustrated by not being able to directly care for patients, medical students across the country formed diverse volunteer initiatives to help frontline clinicians. In this article, the authors describe the essential role of medical students at Weill Cornell Medicine in quickly designing and building a large registry of COVID-19 patients who presented at 3 New York City hospitals. The Cornell COVID-19 Registry, which contains granular clinical information on more than 4,000 patients, informed hospital operations and guided clinical management during the first wave of the pandemic. One month after its creation, the registry led to the first published description of the clinical characteristics of a U.S.-based cohort of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Using their experience as a model, the authors propose that students who cannot participate in their clinical clerkships because of the pandemic can augment their traditional medical education by contributing to COVID-19 research. In the case described in this article, students reviewed the management of COVID-19 patients, followed inpatients throughout their hospitalization (much like students would on clinical rotations), and refined their interpersonal skills through discussions with patients and patients' families during follow-up calls. The authors conclude that medical students who are displaced from their hospital rotations can further their education and provide an invaluable contribution to the fight against COVID-19 by serving as essential frontline researchers.