Learning Clinical Neurophysiology: Gaming is Better than Lectures

Abstract

We sought to find evidence for generalizability of a game and team oriented educational intervention in clinical neurophysiology in a neurology residency program. A prospective educational intervention was studied in a single neurology residency program and compared with a historical control. Seventeen PGY 2-4 residents studied neurophysiology in 2004-2005. The historical control was 20 PGY 2-4 residents from 1998 to 2002. The neurophysiology educational intervention consisted of weekly presentations, followed by a game show-type oral quiz which was team-based and required all residents to participate. The control group attended faculty-prepared didactic lectures. Outcome measures were percent correct subset neurophysiology Residency Inservice Training Examination scores. United States Medical Licensing Examination step 1 scores were also compared between the groups. Data were analyzed with analysis of variance methods accounting for multiple measurements. The mean+/-standard error neurophysiology subset percent correct Residency Inservice Training Examination score was 63.6+/-4.12 for the intervention group and 49.4+/-2.35 for the control (P=0.002). There was no difference in United States Medical Licensing Examination step 1 scores between the two groups (P=0.11). We found evidence for generalizability of the effectiveness of a team-oriented educational intervention in clinical neurophysiology with gaming and oral quizzing in improving subset Residency Inservice Training Examination performance compared with faculty prepared didactics.