In December 2019, the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in China and spread rapidly around the world, resulting in a pandemic declared by the World Health Organization in March 2020. The disease has affected more than 11 million people in Brazil, with more than 265.000 deaths to date, as we are now facing a second wave of infections. Regarding medical assistance and training, it turned out to be a great challenge, since - among other things - many residents were relocated to respiratory units to treat patients with COVID-19. Even though the residency programs situation has become chaotic all around the world and the activities in almost all specialties nearly stopped (especially in surgical specialties), the need to reinvent the way of teaching was the best concern. Worldwide the “webinars fever” was an impulse to try new strategies to fulfill the gaps of knowledge of these future specialists. It is crucial to call to the responsibility put on medical training institutions to prepare these new professionals according the principles of evidence-based medicine, surgical proficiency and patient safety.