The opportunities and Challenges Caused by the Coronavirus Pandemic in the Medical Sciences Education and Clinical Research and Future Strategies for the Post-Coronavirus Era: A Comparative Study on Two Review Articles

The COVID-19 pandemic has created opportunities and challenges for education and research as the two main academic activities in medical sciences disciplines, which due to their mutual influence can be used to propose solutions for improving these two areas. The present study was conducted to compare two review articles, each of which dealt with one of these two areas.This comparative study with a qualitative explanatory design was conducted in three steps. First, two review articles were selected that investigated the opportunities and challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic to propose strategies for the post-corona era. Then, both studies were carefully studied and described. Finally, two researchers separately extracted the similarities and differences mentioned in the two articles and compared them to remove the inconsistencies. A panel of experts confirmed the findings. The opportunities and challenges mentioned in the two articles were extracted and categorized into two areas based on similarities and differences. The similar proposed strategies for the post-corona era were continuing to use virtual space facilities, diversifying the communication methods with students and research participants, and providing and developing suitable electronic infrastructure. Comparing two review articles and determining the similarities and differences between the opportunities and challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the strategies for the post-COVID-19 era related to medical education and clinical research, led to proposing strategies that could promote these two related areas coherently.