Training the Public Physician: The Nephrology Social Media Collective Internship

Comparing the seminar-case learning and lecture-based learning models in medical education: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

BACKGROUND

The seminar-case learning (SCL) model is a case-oriented teaching model, characterized by communication, interaction and mutual inspiration. This study aimed to investigate the impact of SCL versus lecture-based learning (LBL) on medical education outcomes.

METHODS

A comprehensive search was conducted across seven distinct databases, covering the period from their inception until June 2024. Article selection was independently performed by two authors, adhering to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated the effects of the SCL model in comparison to the LBL model were included. The meta-analysis was executed using RevMan 5.4 software.

RESULTS

Sixteen RCTs involving 956 medical students were included in the meta-analysis. The implementation of the SCL model significantly improved theoretical knowledge scores (MD 5.21, 95% CI 3.27-7.16; p < 0.00001), case analysis scores (MD 4.12, 95% CI 2.13-6.11; p < 0.0001) and skill scores (MD 5.37, 95% CI 3.53-7.21; p < 0.00001). Furthermore, the SCL model significantly improved teaching ability, including learning interest, self-learning ability and clinical thinking ability. Despite experiencing a heightened sense of burden, students in the SCL group reported greater satisfaction compared to their counterparts in the LBL group.

CONCLUSIONS

In comparison to the LBL model, the SCL model significantly improved students' outcomes. In addition, the SCL model could promote the cultivation of the clinical thinking and assist students in bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and clinical practice.

Use of social media for academic and professional purposes by gynecologic oncologists

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the prevalence and patterns of social media use among gynecologic oncologists for professional and academic purposes.

METHODS

A prospective online survey between November and December 2022 targeted gynecologic oncology practitioners (gynecologic oncologists, surgical oncologists, medical oncologists, radiation/clinical oncologists, and onco-pathologists/pathologists). The survey, distributed via various social media platforms, included 40 questions to capture qualitative and quantitative data on social media use.

RESULTS

Of 131 respondents from 32 countries, 106 (80.9%) were gynecologic oncologists and affiliated with academic institutions (84.7%). Facebook (n=110, 83.9%), Twitter (n= 108, 82.4%), and Instagram (n=100, 76.3%) were the most used platforms. Respondents used social media to stay updated (n=101, 77.1%), network (n=97, 74%), learn about conferences and webinars (n=97, 74%), and engage in academic discussions (n=84, 64.1%). Following the COVID-19 pandemic, 100/129 (77.5%) reported increased social media use. However, only 32 (24.4%) used it to connect with patients, and concerns were raised about privacy and the need for separate professional and personal accounts. A quarter of respondents hesitated to share their opinions on social media due to the fear of controversy, with 26 (20%) experiencing cyberbullying, yet 120/130 (92.3%) believed it enabled junior professionals to express their views. Concerns about differentiating valid content, information reliability, and the professional perception of sourcing knowledge from social media were noted. Gender, age, specialty, and income level influenced patterns of social media use, with variations in preferences for platforms, content engagement, and purposes, highlighting a complex landscape of social media interaction among gynecologic oncologists.

CONCLUSION

While the use of social media among gynecologic oncologists is prevalent, particularly for academic and professional development, challenges such as cyberbullying, privacy concerns, and the need for formal training in social media navigation persist. Tailored training programs and guidelines could enhance social media's effective and ethical use in this field, promoting a safe environment for professional expression and engagement.

'My doctor self and my human self': A qualitative study of physicians' presentation of self on social media

INTRODUCTION

When using social media, physicians are encouraged and trained to maintain separate professional and personal identities. However, this separation is difficult and even undesirable, as the blurring of personal and professional online presence can influence patient trust. Thus, it is necessary to develop policies and educational resources that are more responsive to the blurring of personal and professional boundaries on social media. This study aims to provide an understanding of how physicians present themselves holistically online to inform such policies and resources.

METHODS

Twenty-eight US-based physicians who use social media were interviewed. Participants were asked to describe how and why they use social media, specifically Twitter (rebranded as 'X' in 2023). Interviews were complemented by data from the participants' Twitter profiles. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis guided by Goffman's dramaturgical model. This model uses the metaphor of a stage to characterise how individuals attempt to control the aspects of the identities-or faces-they display during social interactions.

RESULTS

The participants presented six faces, which included professionally focused faces (e.g. networker) and those more personal in nature (e.g. human). The participants crafted and maintained these faces through discursive choices in their tweets and profiles, which were motivated by their audience's perceptions. We identified overlaps and tensions at the intersections of these faces, which posed professional and personal challenges for participants.

CONCLUSIONS

Physicians strategically emphasise their more professional or personal faces according to their objectives and motivations in different communicative situations, and tailor their language and content to better reach their target audiences. While tensions arise between these faces, physicians still prefer to project a rounded, integral image of themselves on social media. This suggests a need to reconsider social media policies and related educational initiatives to better align with the realities of these digital environments.

The ID Digital Institute: Building a digital education toolset and community

Organic digital education (ODE) includes online medical education content that can take various forms, such as blogs, social media, videos, podcasts, or infographics. Multimedia ODE platforms have unique benefits and have quickly become an essential part of medical education. Modern medical educators with competency in digital teaching modalities can leverage these for teaching as well as career development and dissemination of scientific research. The ID Digital Institute is a digital education program with a curriculum designed to equip infectious diseases (ID) professionals with the skills to appraise, create, curate, and integrate ODE into their teaching and career. We share the structure, content, and lessons learned from the ID Digital Institute program. We also illustrate how digital education skills can present unique opportunities to align with current and future transplant and immunocompromised host infectious diseases education efforts.

Impact of the Febrile Podcast and Learning Resource as an Infectious Diseases Education Platform

Background

Febrile is an infectious diseases (ID) podcast and learning platform with the aim of providing high-quality and accessible ID content for learners. We describe the use of Febrile as a resource for learning and teaching ID as well as learner satisfaction and perceived impact on clinical practice.

Methods

The Febrile platform was launched in December 2020 and includes audio podcast episodes, infographics, and detailed online summaries of adult and pediatric ID topics. Production and contributor information is summarized. Podcast, website, and social media engagement is reported from available quantitative analytics. An online anonymous survey was conducted to assess educational impact.

Results

After 3 years of operation, Febrile has produced 90 episodes and has been downloaded >460 000 times in 196 countries, with the majority of its audience (58.9%) listening from within the United States. A total of 230 participants from 30 countries and 38 US states completed the survey, of whom 79 (34.5%) were ID fellows in training and 78 (34.2%) were ID faculty physicians. Seventy-two percent of survey respondents reported visiting the website, and 82% had seen an infographic. Enhancing core ID knowledge was the primary driver for listening. Two-thirds of respondents indicated that information learned from Febrile has changed their practice, and 50% have used Febrile as a way to teach others. Febrile also led to favorable impressions of ID for those considering ID as a career.

Conclusions

Febrile is an engaging platform for ID medical education and provides a unique resource within the global ID community.

Exploring Resident Motivation with a Podcast Creation Activity: A Qualitative Study

Purpose

As the field of digital education expands, it is important to understand the benefit to the creator of such resources as well as the user. This study sought to understand the resident's experience with writing a medical podcast script in contrast to creating lecture-based teaching presentations. We aimed to explore the motivation behind the resident's voluntary participation and provide an example and framework to residency programs looking to enhance their resident as teacher curricula with the use of digital education.

Materials and Methods

Using constructivist grounded theory, residents who completed a podcast script for "The Intern at Work," a learner-generated podcast series, were recruited to partake. Focus groups were recorded, transcribed, and coded iteratively with the use of constant comparison until theoretical sufficiency was achieved.

Results

Residents (n = 12) described three key factors of the podcast development activity that fostered learner motivation: (1) Driving Interest: residents were excited to use a novel outlet to teach; (2) Self-Directed Process: residents appreciated the opportunity for collaboration and flexibility; (3) Appreciable Benefit: residents identified several self-gains.

Conclusion

Our findings provide an example of an innovative teaching activity that intrinsically motivated residents. Such information has the potential to inform program leaders on how to foster resident motivation to teach.

RheumMadness: Creating an Online Community of Inquiry in Rheumatology

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the educational impact of RheumMadness, an online tournament of rheumatology concepts grounded in social constructivist theory, as viewed through the community of inquiry (CoI) framework.

METHODS

The curricular scaffold of RheumMadness was a bracket of 16 rheumatology concepts competing as "teams" in a tournament. Participants could create and review "scouting reports" about each team, listen to a RheumMadness podcast, discuss on social media, and submit a bracket predicting tournament outcomes according to the perceived importance of each team. Engagement was measured with direct analytics and through self-report on a survey. The survey also assessed participants' educational experience using an adapted 34-item CoI survey, which describes the cognitive, social, and teaching presences in a learning activity.

RESULTS

One hundred brackets were submitted. On average, each scouting report was viewed 92 times, each podcast episode was downloaded 163 times, and 486 tweets were sent about #RheumMadness from 105 users. The survey received 58 of 107 responses (54%). Respondent agreement with prompts related to each CoI presence was: 70.3% cognitive, 61.7% social, 84.9% teaching. Reported engagement in RheumMadness correlated strongly with overall CoI survey scores (r = 0.72, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

RheumMadness created an online CoI that fostered social constructivist learning about rheumatology.

Harnessing Social Media to Enhance Nephrology Academia

The process of learning has been confined to the realms of educational institutions. Over the last ten years, the semantics of social media networks have evolved with the use of mobile gadgets. Consequently, nephrologists have realised the potential benefits of using these platforms for their educational and career development. Social media can change the horizon of nephrology education. The concept of bedside examination, teaching and sharing experiences have changed with the advent of Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and X (former Twitter). Other networking portals, such as WhatsApp, Telegram, X (former Twitter), and Pinterest, have also amassed the attention of selected users. Despite split opinions on the utility of social media, it is undeniable that it has influenced interaction between students and mentors. Resources ranging from online networks, blogs, visual aids, podcasts, online journal clubs, videos, live conference coverages, and tutorials have made it possible for nephrologists to stay informed and educated with recent updates. In this review, we discuss how social media can enrich nephrology academia, facilitate the sharing of research and access to fellowships and mentorship programs, provide career prospects to trainees, and broadcast scientific conferences while bringing nephrology societies together.

Keywords

education; nephrology; social media.

Evolution in Congenital Cardiology Education: The Rise of Digital-Learning Tools

Technology-enhanced learning is now an established part of medical education due to its ready availability and on-demand nature. This offers new opportunities but also challenges to both learners and teachers. This review outlines the current use of social media tools and online resources in medical education with a particular emphasis on congenital cardiology. It provides strategies to the reader on how to optimize learning in the digital environment and offers guidance on how such tools can be incorporated into routine educational practice. Suggestions for developing and assessing educational material online are discussed. Lastly, the concepts of digital professionalism and digital scholarship are explored to aid medical teachers and educators employ these technologies effectively into their teaching and career development.

The evolution of social media in nephrology education: A mini-review

Social media is defined as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content". Social media can be used in medical education to enhance knowledge sharing among peer groups and the public in general. The internet revolutionized learning by allowing easier dissemination of knowledge that did not depend on printing and physical distribution of books, journals, or magazines. According to a report from 2018, 95% of students have access to smartphones and 45% are online at any given time. Social media platforms are powerful tools to spread knowledge by the way of stories, videos, and educational games. Both formal and informal learning can be achieved with the use of social media. The microblogging website Twitter has become a popular social media platform by many in medical education including the nephrology community. Twitter, for example, is used to build communities, discuss journal articles, inform the community of conferences, share infographics and visual abstracts of original research work. As an example, it can be difficult for women in nephrology to connect and travel to make a physical presence. The use of social media allows women to connect via webinars and Women in Nephrology (WIN) India live Twitter chats. Thus, social media can help facilitate networking and collaboration with nephrologists all over the world. Social media has limitations as well. Insensitive posts can have a detrimental effect on one's career. A survey has shown that increased use of social media can contribute to addiction, anxiety, diminished self-esteem, and even depression. Hence, in order to effectively use social media to contribute positively to one's career, we recommend considering the positive and negative aspects of social media.This review will discuss the various social media platforms and how they have been applied to nephrology education.

Be in the Digital Room Where it Happens, Part II: Social Media for Neurology Educators

Social media has changed the way we communicate and interact. Unsurprisingly, it has also changed how we teach and learn. Younger generations of learners have transitioned from traditional educational sources to digital ones. Medical educators need to adapt to trends in medical education and develop fluency in the digital methods used by medical learners today. This is part two of a two-part series on social media and digital education in neurology. This article provides an overview of how social media can be used as a teaching tool in medical education and provides an overview in which it is grounded. We offer practical strategies on how social media can promote lifelong learning, educator development, educator support, and foster educator identity with accompanying neurology-specific examples. We also review considerations for incorporating social media into teaching and learning practices and future directions for integrating these tools in neurology education.

A Novel MG 2D Animation Design Method under the Perspective of Convergence Media Using Intelligent Design Technology

The arrival of the 5G era, along with the gradual acceleration of information technology development, makes all kinds of new media gradually integrated into all corners of people's life, work, and study. Communication systems are breaking the original boundaries and moving toward communion. “Convergence Media” is a general term of new media which is built on modern network technology and integrates various media forms. In this context, animation design not only is limited to two-dimensional or three-dimensional creation, but also formed a new form of animation expression, namely, MG animation. For MG animation, with its simple artistic modeling elements and flexible rhythm, people have gained new cognition. When the Internet information is transmitted, MG animation can output a large number of dynamic images and text to people in a very short time, which is similar to the current mode of new media communication. It can make information more attractive and appealing with the visual performance of MG animation. In order to improve the quality and efficiency of animation, convergence media technology is applied to the drawing and production of animation. The emergence and continuous improvement of software such as AE, PR, and PS and other software have a strong compatibility and can fully meet our various requirements for MG animation production, thus bringing the audience a different kind of animation experience. AE, a common software for video production, can create a variety of striking visual effects with high efficiency and precision, with powerful effects control and millions of plug-ins to achieve a wide range of animation effects. High-quality video rendering supports resolutions from 4 × 4 to 30,000 × 30,000 pixels including high-definition television (HDTV). Therefore, in terms of animation production, we can choose to mainly use AE for production and rendering. In terms of drawing tools, PS is the software of choice, with no delay in drawing, dithering correction, selection, and other features which are quite outstanding, and has a great advantage in drawing lines and coloring. Based on this, this paper mainly explores the design and production cases of MG 2D animation from the new media perspective using the intelligent design technology. The animation designed by the method in this paper can also be used for medical treatment management or lesion display in the medical field.

Are Undergraduates Familiar with Nephrology as a Medical Specialty? A Single Site Survey of Undergraduate Students

Background

Over the past decade, nephrology has experienced a 43% decline in the number of fellowship applicants. Previous studies examining why residents choose a fellowship program cite lack of exposure as a main factor having an effect against a career in nephrology; however, no studies have surveyed the undergraduate population to inquire whether they recognize nephrology as a medical specialty compared with other medical specialties. We conducted a survey at a primarily undergraduate institution in the Southeast United States to test whether undergraduate students identified the word "nephrology."

Methods

A total of 274 undergraduates responded to a survey that requested them to select every medical specialty that they recognized by name (15 real specialties and one fictitious specialty). Demographics regarding sex, race, collegiate level, high school location, premedical track, and household income were collected. Correlations between survey findings and rates of application and average salary per specialty were assessed.

Results

Out of 15 medical specialties, nephrology (29%) and pulmonology (40%) were the least recognized. Pediatrics (97%) and surgery (97%) ranked highest. Sex, race, collegiate level, and household income were not different between those students who recognized "nephrology" and those who did not. Premedical students were about twice as likely to have recognized nephrology versus nonpremedical students (49% versus 22%, respectively; P<0.001). STEM majors were about twice as likely to identify nephrology versus non-STEM majors (40% versus 20%, respectively; P<0.001). The proportion of undergraduate students who recognized a specific medical specialty significantly correlated only with the number of US applicants per fellowship position across different medical specialties in 2020 (P<0.05).

Conclusions

On the basis of word association alone, nephrology is the one of the least recognized specialties by undergraduates. The discrepancy between nephrology and other specialties highlights a gap in name recognition at an early career stage, even among premedical students.

#SoMe the Money! Value, Strategy, and Implementation of Social Media Engagement for Infectious Diseases Trainees, Clinicians, and Divisions

Social media platforms have revolutionized how we consume information, along with how to effectively present communication, education, and advocacy efforts. There is profound value in leveraging social media within these aspects for the field of infectious diseases, for divisions and individual clinicians. Herein, we provide the rationale to incorporate social media as a key competency for infectious diseases training and specific guidance on aspects of education and strategic development of new accounts critical for success.

The Digital Classroom: How to Leverage Social Media for Infectious Diseases Education

Social media (SoMe) platforms have been increasingly used by infectious diseases (ID) learners and educators in recent years. This trend has only accelerated with the changes brought to our educational spaces by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Given the increasingly diverse SoMe landscape, educators may find themselves struggling with how to effectively use these tools. In this Viewpoint we describe how to use SoMe platforms (e.g., Twitter, podcasts, and open-access online content portals) in medical education, highlight medical education theories supporting their use, and discuss how educators can engage with these learning tools effectively. We focus on how these platforms harness key principles of adult learning and provide a guide for educators in the effective use of SoMe tools in educating ID learners. Finally, we suggest how to effectively interact with and leverage these increasingly important digital platforms.

Picking Up the Slack: Collaboration Tools to Build Community and Increase Productivity in Nephrology

With a growing need to recruit the future nephrology workforce, medical educators and members of the nephrology community are turning to innovative approaches to improve communication and stimulate dialogue in the field. One feasible strategy is the use of electronic collaboration tools such as Slack (Slack Technologies, San Francisco, CA), which facilitates real-time conversational communication in a private or semiprivate virtual workspace. The potential uses of Slack for nephrology education, research collaboration, and community building are outlined in this overview.