P.103 Studying behaviors among neurosurgery residents using web 2.0 analytic tools

Abstract

Background: Web 2.0 technologies (e.g. blogs, social networks, and wikis) are increasingly being utilized by medical schools and postgraduate training programs as tools for information dissemination. These technologies offer the unique opportunity to track metrics of user engagement and interaction. Here, we employ Web 2.0 technologies to assess academic behaviors among neurosurgery residents. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of all educational lectures, part of the core Neurosurgery Residency curriculum at the University of Toronto, posted on our teaching blog (www.TheBrainSchool.net) from Sept 2013 - Nov 2016. We looked for associations with lecturer’s academic position, timing of examinations, and lecture/subspecialty topic. Results: The overall number of clicks on 123 lectures was 1079. Most of these clicks were occurring during the in-training exam month (43%). Click numbers were significantly higher on lectures presented by faculty (mean 18.6, SD ± 4.1) compared to residents-delivered lectures (mean 8.4, SD ± 2.1) (P= 0.031). Functional neurosurgery lectures were the most downloaded (47%), followed by pediatric neurosurgery (22%). Conclusions: The current study demonstrates the value of Web 2.0 analytic tools in examining residents study behavior. Residents tend to ‘cram’ downloading lectures in the same month of training exams and display a preference for faculty-delivered lectures.