DE02 Honing in on clinician needs: a grassroots development of an educational resource for dermatologists

Abstract

Abstract Keeping up with the influx of scientific research papers can feel overwhelming, especially alongside busy clinical responsibilities. A PubMed search of the term ‘dermatology’ produced 29 565 results for 2021 alone, and, consequently, clinicians face spending hours a week scanning journals just to stay up to date. This is coupled with increasing clinical demand due to rising waiting lists and skin cancer pressures. Innovative solutions to the problem include regular newsletters, which have been proven to be an effective tool in medical education in other specialities (Kolli A, Nguyen A, Portney D et al. The Lens: can a weekly newsletter improve medical student knowledge of the ophthalmology literature? J Surg Educ 2021; 78:1905–14). To address this challenge in dermatology, we created a newsletter to make dermatology research more accessible. Two consultant dermatologists created a system whereby clinically relevant articles are chosen following a review of ∼30 journals. These are condensed into short clinical summaries, containing relevant findings, limitations and applicability, emulating a journal club style. This was initially distributed within our local hospital, but the team and readership have since expanded. From January 2022, in addition to the written newsletter, a freely available podcast for each newsletter was created giving an opportunity to learn on the move (e.g. while commuting). At 12 months, the newsletter has 206 subscribers, and the podcast has achieved 810 total plays (with download locations ranging from the USA to India). More recently, we have reached new audiences via Instagram, with 1700 views and 123 likes of the content thus far. A survey was distributed to current subscribers to determine the usefulness of the newsletter as an educational resource. Eighteen responses were received, and 100% agreed that they felt more informed on recent publications in dermatology from reading the newsletter (83% strongly agreed; 17% agreed). In addition to this, 100% felt that the articles chosen were relevant to their clinical practice (78% strongly agreed; 22% agreed). Feedback included comments such as ‘it is a great way to keep informed on recent publications that may be of interest’ and ‘super useful bite-sized information’. The General Medical Council guidance on Good Medical Practice requires doctors to ‘keep professional knowledge and skills up to date’. We feel the interest in our grassroots journal club publication and the survey results (with all our respondents feeling more informed on dermatological research, particularly with articles relevant to their clinical practice) highlight an unmet need for accessible educational resources to enable busy dermatologists to become aware rapidly and efficiently of the latest clinical developments.