Learning Outcomes of Virtual Journal Clubs in Comparison to Real Ones in Pediatric Neurology Fellows

RIP OUT Creating a Virtual Journal Club: A Community of Practice Using Multiple Social Media Strategies Michelle Lin, MD (@M_Lin) Jonathan Sherbino, MD, MEd (@sherbino) The Challenge Rip Out Action Items Health professions educators should: A journal club provides an opportunity to critically appraise the medical literature and apply it to clinical practice. Traditional, in-person journal clubs face challenges of scheduling participants and facilitators, recruiting local experts, and having a limited, local impact. What Is Known Journal clubs may help develop communities of practice involving ‘‘groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.’’ 1 With the advent of modern digital technologies, online medical-related journal clubs are increasing: partici- pation can be synchronous or asynchronous, experts can be recruited from a global pool, and discussions are digitally archived for broader dissemination. In addition, these journal clubs may disseminate educa- tional innovations and interventions to a wider audience for further study, and they provide rapid feedback to authors regarding similar work occurring elsewhere. These online discourses, however, typically incorporate a single social media strategy, such as Twitter-based journal clubs (#UroJC, 2 #NephJC, http://www.nephjc.com). In an age where we view, engage, and learn from multiple digital streams, a virtual journal club requires a multimodal social media strategy to optimize reach and engagement. In January 2015, a virtual medical education journal club called ‘‘JGME- ALiEM Hot Topics in Medical Education’’ was piloted as a joint collaboration between the Journal of Graduate Medical Education and Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM, an education blog with 1.2 million page views per year). 3 This Rip Out describes how to move from hosting an online, single DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-15-00070.1 Editor’s Note: The online version of this article contains the framework used for the blog post featuring the JGME/ALiEM Hot Topics in Medical Education journal club. 1. Incorporate multiple social media strategies when devel- oping a virtual journal club. 2. Ensure that facilitators are familiar with different social media platforms, including blogs, Twitter, and Google Hangouts on Air videoconferencing. 3. Identify the core team, which consists of at least 4 individuals with unique roles and responsibilities: a primary facilitator, a secondary facilitator/social media expert, a featured author, and an expert discussant. 4. Prepare, host, and conclude the virtual journal club in a 5- stage approach: preparation, promotion, journal club launch, livestream video discussion, and curated dissemination. 5. Use web analytics to trend use and reach as indirect measures of success and impact. platform to a virtual, multimodal journal club by using a blog platform as the central repository of information to house blog comments, embedded Twitter comments, and embedded Google Hangouts on Air video discussions. How You Can Start TODAY 1. Technology platform setup a. Create a (or join an existing) blog. b. Ensure that each facilitator has a Twitter account. c. Create a free YouTube channel to host the livestreamed Google Hangouts on Air video- conference. 2. Build the core team: A minimum of 4 core team members are needed to host a virtual journal club. a. Primary facilitator across the platforms (blog, Twitter, videoconference) b. Secondary facilitator and expert in social media platforms c. Author from the featured journal club pub- lication, to participate in the videoconference discussion d. Topic expert to participate in the videocon- ference discussion Journal of Graduate Medical Education, September 2015

We developed a virtual journal club (VJC) for internal medicine residents and faculty as an alternative to the regularly scheduled journal clubs. We expected the VJC to increase journal club participation by overcoming time and geographic barriers to attendance resulting from duty hour limits and dispersion of residents across multiple clinical sites, and to enhance evidence-based medicine skills.The VJC is part of the department's intranet website and is managed by the chief medical residents. The VJC users read, review, and post comments on a blog-like feature. Each month, a senior resident prepares a critical appraisal of a recent article following the user guide format from the Journal of the American Medical Association1–5 with the mentorship of a faculty member. Once the appraisal and a link to the original article are posted to the website, residents and faculty are notified by e-mail. Educational goals are determined depending on the type of article and are discussed in detail in the critical appraisal, with links to definitions and explanations in the file and on the website's main page.We monitored VJC website usage from July 2008 through November 2009, including the number of visits, comments on the blog, and downloads of articles and critical appraisals. To evaluate user perceptions of the VJC, we surveyed internal medicine residents (n = 116) and faculty (n = 31) on whether the VJC achieved its educational goals.Results showed VJC website visits of approximately 307 per month (range 31–570), blog comments of 10 per month, article downloads of 97 per month (range 20–140), and critical appraisal downloads of 114 per month (range 20–120). As typical for new technology, the VJC received an initial enthusiastic response. However, after 3 months, enthusiasm faded, and indicators of participation decreased. To achieve our goal of maintaining a successful VJC, starting in January 2009, we made the VJC a part of the academic hour, a block of protected time in the ambulatory clinic used for didactics. The VJC participation rates increased to approximately 100 downloads per month for articles and critical appraisals, and that rate was maintained for the remainder of the tracking period.Survey respondents from 27 residents and 5 faculty physicians showed that most agreed the VJC discussion was educationally valuable (84% agreed or strongly agreed), that the VJC helped keep them up to date with recent medical literature (78% agreed or strongly agreed), and that the VJC improved their critical appraisal skills (72% agreed or strongly agreed).Since incorporating the VJC into the ambulatory curriculum and dedicating specific time to review with the faculty, it has been very popular. Residents and faculty review articles before the educational session and spend the hour discussing the methodology, statistical concepts, and how to incorporate that knowledge into daily practice. Blog comments have been robust, with nearly every preceptor group commenting with each monthly session. Awarding continuing medical education credits to faculty who participate via the blog has helped with that.This virtual setting for education complements the traditional journal club in residency training and helps enhance the evidence-based medicine learning experience, which may lead to improvement in skills.

Journal clubs (JCs) are a common format used in teaching institutions to promote trainee engagement and develop skills in seeking out evidence-based medicine and critically evaluating literature. Digital technology has made JC accessible to worldwide audiences, which allows for increased inclusion of globally diverse presenters and attendees. Herein we describe the experience of the first 2 years of a virtual gynecologic pathology JC designed with the goal of providing mentorship and increasing inclusivity. JC began in a virtual format in April 2020 in response to the need for remote learning during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Each JC had 1 moderator, lasted 1 hour, featured up to 3 trainees/early-career pathologists, and covered articles on gynecologic surgical pathology/cytopathology. Trainees were recruited through direct contact with moderators and advertising through social media (eg, Twitter). A template was used for all presentations, and before presenting, live practice sessions were conducted with the moderator providing constructive feedback and evaluations were provided to presenters and attendees for feedback. Recordings of the meetings were made publicly available after the event through YouTube, a society website, and emails to registrants. Fifty-nine presenters participated, covering 71 articles. Most were trainees (53/59; 89%) from North America (33/59; 56%), with additional presenters from Asia (14/59; 24%), Australia/Oceania (5/59; 8%), Africa (4/59; 7%), and Europe (3/59; 5%). An average of 20 hours were spent per month by moderators on the selection of papers, meeting preparation, and provision of mentorship/feedback. Live events had a total of 827 attendees, and 16,138 interactions with the recordings were noted. Among those who self-identified on provided surveys, the attendees were most commonly from Europe (107/290; 37%) and were overwhelmingly practicing pathologists (275/341; 81%). The experience, including mentorship, format, and content, was positively reviewed by attendees and presenters. Virtual JC is an inclusive educational opportunity to engage trainees and early-career pathologists from around the world. The format allowed for the JC to be widely viewed by attendees from multiple countries, most being practicing pathologists. Based on feedback received, virtual JC appears to expand the medical knowledge of the attendees and empower presenters to develop their expertise and communication skills.

ObjectivesJournal club, a century old tradition, is “an educational meeting, with a true purpose of acquiring, disseminating, and applying new research information”. Most Journal club didactics are also used to...

A Resident-Led Virtual Journal Club to Educate Pediatric Residents About Coronavirus Disease 2019.

Presentation Date: 6/9/2024 Presentation Start Time: 1:51:00 PM Background Individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD) often endure multiple acute pain crises throughout their lives. The cumulative impact of these crises and physical complications contribute to the emergence of chronic pain syndromes, mental health conditions, and impaired health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in early adolescence that persist through adulthood. In a longitudinal etiologic study of 232 adults with SCD, patients scored significantly worse than national norms on HRQoL. In their 2020 guidelines for pain management in SCD, the American Society of Hematology acknowledged that pharmacologic approaches have limited effectiveness and non-pharmacologic integrative approaches are beneficial but may have limited accessibility for individuals with SCD. In our prior feasibility study, 24 adults with SCD and chronic pain were randomized to receive either an in-person 6-session music therapy (MT) intervention (n = 12) or waitlist control (WLC) (n = 12). We developed procedures for screening, recruitment, retention, and electronic data collection within this single-site randomized controlled trial (RCT). The enrollment rate was 89%, and 100% of study measures were completed. MT participants demonstrated 100% attendance to in-person MT sessions at the cancer center where the SCD clinic was located. In preliminary analyses, MT participants demonstrated significant mean improvements in self-efficacy (5.42), sleep disturbance (-1.49), pain interference (-2.10), and social functioning impact (2.97) compared to WLC participants. However, this pilot was not adequately powered to detect differences across groups nor is a WLC group an adequate comparison group for RCTs. Furthermore, since that pilot and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our MT program has been adapted for virtual delivery, with several virtual MT sessions being successfully provided to adults with SCD. We contend that use of a hybrid (i.e., 1 in-person session followed by 5 virtual sessions) MT intervention will be feasible and accessible for adolescents and adults aged 14 and older with SCD. The primary objective is to refine procedures for conducting a future fully-powered multi-site RCT. The secondary objective of the study is to examine the feasibility of completeness of data collection, participant recruitment and rate, participant retention, as well as assessment of hybrid intervention implementation and home practice using study records across the 2 sites. This study will include qualitative interviews to assess feasibility of implementation. Methods This is a multi-site, multi-visit feasibility RCT of three wellbeing interventions among patient aged 14 years and older with SCD. Ninety subjects will be recruited from: UH Seidman Cancer Center Adult SCD Clinic or UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital Sickle Cell Anemia Center (site 1) and Prisma Health Lifespan Comprehensive SCD Program (site 2). Patients with SCD enrolled from SCD centers will be randomly assigned to either in-person MT (InMT), hybrid MT (HybMT) or hybrid health education (HybHE). Subjects will be enrolled for 12 to 14 weeks (6-8 weeks for the intervention and 6 weeks for the final follow-up measures). Participants in the InMT condition will receive 6 in-person MT sessions. Participants in either the HybMT or the HybHE condition will receive 1 in-person session and 5 virtual sessions over a secure telehealth platform. Participant interviews will take place during their 12 to 14 weeks of enrollment, approximately 2-3 weeks after their last session. Participants will enter their responses to the patient reported outcome (PRO) measures directly into REDCap using an iPad provided at baseline or using their own devices (post-intervention and 6-week follow-up). We will also collect data via an electronic health record review for clinical characteristics. Implementation outcomes (acceptability, use of MT exercises and HybHE assignments during and post-intervention will be evaluated with Likert scales, self-report, and REDCap surveys. Results Recruitment for this feasibility RCT will begin in May 2024. The study protocol and any updates will be presented. Conclusions Successful conduct of the proposed, feasibility RCT will provide the necessary framework for our long-term goal: conducting a future, multi-site, definitive RCT of music therapy compared with health education at multiple sites using the UG3/UH3 mechanism. Completion of the proposed R01 and the subsequent RCT (UG3/UH3) could provide critical evidence to support the inclusion of music therapy as a chronic pain intervention for individuals with SCD. Such an expansion could provide individuals with SCD with culturally relevant, non-pharmacologic methods for managing pain, improving self-efficacy, and reducing the psychosocial burden of SCD.

Traditional journal club models based on didactic presentation sessions followed by group discussion have many limitations. To overcome some of these shortcomings, a virtual journal club (VJC) using social media and e-mail was developed. The aim of this study was to report the initial experience of this novel multimodal e-learning platform to facilitate journal club discussion and promote the development of critical appraisal skills. Journal articles were discussed monthly via e-mail and social media. After a 3-week period of discussion, all comments were collated and group-generated critical appraisal summaries were fed back to participants. In addition, letters to the journal editors based on the group appraisal were submitted. A questionnaire survey to evaluate the VJC concept was also conducted. After eight cycles of the VJC, the mean trainee participation rate was 29.6 per cent (range 21.1-42.1%). Senior trainees (≥4 years of postgraduate experience) were more likely to participate than more junior trainees (75.0 versus 21.1%; p = 0.005). The majority of participants thought that the VJC was educationally valuable, easy to participate in, helpful in keeping up to date with recent papers and useful in developing critical appraisal skills. Barriers to participation were lack of time, motivation and lack of experience in critical appraisal. In addition, the group-generated critical appraisal summaries derived from VJC discussions led to eight published 'letters to the editor'. Traditional journal club models based on didactic presentation sessions followed by group discussion have many limitations This novel VJC model is a feasible and popular method of delivering a journal club in the postgraduate setting.

Another Time, Another Space: The Evolution of the Virtual Journal Club

How to Organize a Journal Club for Fellows and Residents.

BackgroundJournal clubs have been a mainstay of medical education since the days of Osler. Social media platforms allow virtual journal clubs to connect global participants. We describe the creation and impact of #IDJClub, an Infectious Diseases (ID) Twitter journal club.MethodsWe launched #IDJClub in October 2019. The format presents a recent ID publication for a 1-hour synchronous Twitter chat led by an ID physician from @IDJClub. Sessions started monthly, but increased in frequency due to interest during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-scripted tweets guide participants through the article description and analysis. We used Symplur’s Healthcare Hashtag project to track the number of impressions, tweets, participants, and the engagement rate (average tweets/participant) of #IDJClub per 60 minute discussion plus the following 30 minutes to capture ongoing conversations. We also conducted an online anonymous survey using Likert scales and open-ended questions to assess educational impact.ResultsAs of June 11 2020, @IDJClub garnered 5,338 followers from around the world (Figure 1). In its first 9 months, 12 virtual journal clubs were conducted with a mean of 791,624 impressions, 328 tweets, and 48 participants per session, which steadily increased over time (Figure 2). A total of 134 participants completed the survey, of whom 40% were ID physicians, 19% pharmacists, 13% ID fellows, and 10% medical residents. Most respondents followed 1–2 (38%) or 3–4 (38%) of the discussions, with variable levels of active participation. Majorities agreed that #IDJClub provided clinically useful knowledge, increased personal confidence in review of literature, and compared favorably with in-person journal clubs (Figure 3). The format addressed several barriers such as lack of access to in-person journal clubs or subject experts at one’s own institution and lack of time to read new research or attend traditional journal clubs (Figure 4).Conclusion#IDJClub is an effective platform for virtual journal club, providing an engaging, open-access tool for critical appraisal of ID literature. This innovation in medical education overcomes several barriers to traditional journal clubs while fostering professional relationships within the global ID community.DisclosuresTodd P. McCarty, MD, Amplyx (Scientific Research Study Investigator)Cidara (Scientific Research Study Investigator)

Studies have revealed critical delays in translating clinical research findings into practice; they have also highlighted overly rapid adoption of new interventions with limited supporting evidence.1 This too slow or too fast adoption of innovation occurs in medical education as well. Examples include the slow adoption of problem-based learning in the 1980s, the standardization of patients for assessment in the 1990s, and the current rapid move to online teaching modules for a wide array of objectives.2–6

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of Orthopaedic virtual journal club started during COVID-19 pandemic. Study Design: Descriptive Cross sectional. Setting: Orthopaedic & Traumatology Division Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, Pakistan. Period: 6th February 2021 to 6th June 2023. Material & Methods: We selected one original article which was published in Journal of Pakistan Orthopaedic Association (JPOA).The author of that article would present it in synchronous virtual journal club (VJC) on Zoom. Orthopaedic residents from all over Pakistan attended the VJC. All the residents provided feedback (on 5 point Likert scale) by answering 11 questions related to various aspects of their learning experiences which were analyzed to measure the effectiveness of VJC. Results: We conducted 12 VJC on various topics. The total number of post graduate residence who attended these VJC were 380. Final year residents were more likely to attend VJC than first year residents (p=0.02). After 12 VJC the mean resident participation was 42±1.2. We received the feedback forms of 344(90.52%) residents. The VJC was extremely convenient to vast majority (86.62%, n=298) of residents. The VJC was perceived very effective and extremely valuable by 90.11% (n=310) and 84.59% (n=291) residents respectively. Majority (90.11%, n=310) of our residents strongly agreed that VJC provided them more understanding of writing an original article. Conclusion: Our transition from physical to virtual journal club was very fruitful. Virtual Journal club was an extremely convenient, very effective and extremely valuable form of distant learning. Knowledge, attitude and skills of the residents were improved which support them in their delivery of patient care and improved patient clinical outcome. The VJC provided the residents more understanding of writing an original article.

Virtual Journal Club Beyond the Pandemic: An Enduring and Fluid Educational Forum

Journal club (JC) is widely used as an educational method to support nurses in up-to-date clinical practices, acquire critical appraisal skills, and promote evidence-based nursing practice. Traditionally, JC activities were conducted as face-to-face sessions. However, after the emergence of the pandemic, many educational activities including JC turn to the online platform. This study aims to assess the perceived educational value of JC and the experience of virtual journal club (VJC) among nurses. A cross-sectional research design was used to gather the information from the nurses using the Nursing journal club perception scale. A purposive sampling method was used to enroll 450 participants from the JC attendees of various facilities between May andAugust 2022. The data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis test. The data from 450 participants were analyzed with a response rate of 40.1%. The majority of the participants were females (82.4%) and belonged to the 35-44 years' age group (39.6%). Mostly, the subjects were registered nurses or midwives (78%) and had more than 5 years of clinical experience (45.8%). The mean perceived educational value of JC and VJC was 62.9 ± 8.3 and 56.3 ± 8.9, respectively. The nurse educators are holding higher educational value of JC as compared to other participants including clinical nurses, charge nurses, head nurses, and director of nurses (P = 0.03). Additionally, 90% of participants strongly agreed that the nursing journal club helps them to disseminate and reinforce evidence-based practice, update their clinical knowledge, and was very informative. Furthermore, 80% of participants agreed that educational standards, social networking, and time allocation of the VJC are enhancing the chance of attending more sessions. The JC has a vital role in preparing nurses for promoting research culture and practicing evidence-based nursing care. The national health strategies are focused on improving research capabilities and enhancing research within the national context. The implementation of evidence-based practice in healthcare involves enhancing formal research opportunities, promoting continuing education in research, developing skills in addressing research gaps, and enhancing research-oriented cultures in healthcare facilities. The nursing leadership can play a key role to support the initiatives to develop and conduct nursing JC in their facilities to improve the nurse's research skills and evidence-based nursing practice.

To our knowledge, there is currently no research on telerehabilitation concerning artists. This study aims to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of utilizing video-based telerehabilitation in physiotherapy among artists during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifty-one artists who accessed virtual physiotherapy between November 2020 and February 2022 at a healthcare center that provides specialized healthcare services to artists of all disciplines who reside or work in Ontario, Canada were asked to complete a 26-item online questionnaire about their experience with virtual physiotherapy. The 51 respondents were from a range of artistic disciplines, with the largest portion being musicians (n=22; 43%). Of the respondents, 86% (n=44) felt the virtual physiotherapy met their expectations in therapeutic benefits, 78% (n=40) were confident in performing all the exercises that the physiotherapist demonstrated on the virtual platform, 80% (n=41) did not run into many technological challenges when booking or attending virtual sessions, and 54% (n=20) reported similar treatment outcomes between virtual and in-person sessions. Although artists liked the convenience of accessing physiotherapy from home, 53% (n=17) of respondents rated the lack of physical contact as a major limitation in telerehabilitation. Telerehabilitation for artists during the COVID-19 pandemic has shown potential to be an effective and viable alternative to in-person physiotherapy, as demonstrated by high satisfaction levels and comparable treatment outcomes, especially when public health restrictions were in place. Future research can explore hybrid models (mix of in-person and virtual sessions) in physiotherapy to meet the needs for physical contact during sessions.