A Student-Led Medical Education Initiative in Iran: Responding to COVID-19 in a Resource-Limited Setting

Iran has had the highest number of COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths in the Eastern Mediterranean region: As of October 3, 2020, 464,596 confirmed COVID-19 patients and 26,567 deaths were reported. ¹ When the first COVID-19 patient was detected in Iran on February 19, 2020, hospitals entered into a state of emergency due to shortages of personal protective equipment and frontline staff. Our medical school classes were suspended, and our clinical attending professors were overwhelmed with hospitals’ soaring patient loads. Additionally, limited infrastructure capabilities for transferring traditional in-person medical education to online platforms have contributed to anxiety and fear of an uncertain future amongst medical students. We, as senior medical students (sixth- and seventh-year students [medical interns]) in the capital city of Tehran, aimed to contribute to the COVID-19 response in Iran by filling the medical school educational gap through a student-led COVID-19 initiative