Medical Education Research Study!

Calling all internal medicine podcast listeners!

We want to take the opportunity to invite you, our listeners, to take part in a research study regarding the use of internal medicine podcasts in postgraduate medical training.

The transition into postgraduate medical education is a time in which learners are emerging from curriculum-driven educational goals, into the realm of life-long learning for clinical practice. Thus, residents must decide which academic tools best meet their changing educational needs. This project seeks to clarify how and why internal medicine residents use internal medicine podcasts in their studying. Particular emphasis will be placed on motivation to learn, and how this impacts their choice of study materials.

We invite any listeners who are internal medicine residents in their PGY1 or PGY2 year, to take part in this study. Specifically, the investigators are looking for PGY1 or PGY2 Internal Medicine residents who self-identify as being a listener of internal medicine podcasts to participate. For the purposes of this study, “internal medicine podcasts” will be defined as audio content distributed through publicly-available internet sources and available for download, with content which self-identifies as having internal medicine as its primary subject matter, or who do not self-identify with a specific specialty but whose content fits generally within the realm of internal medicine. The Intern at Work certainly fits this criteria!

Details of the study:

You are invited to participate in an individual interview that will last for approximately 1 hour, which can occur either in person or via Skype. During this interview, you will be asked open ended questions about your experience using internal medicine podcasts. As a thank you for volunteering your time, a $10 gift card to amazon.ca or a coffee shop will be provided. All information will be anonymized after the interview stage. Your participation in this research is completely voluntary.

The investigators of this study are Dr. Catherine Leurer, PGY2 in internal medicine at the University of Toronto, and Dr. Lindsay Melvin, Staff Physician and Assistant Professor in General Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto.

If you wish to learn more or to participate in this research, please contact

catherine.leurer@mail.utoronto.ca

Thank you for your time, and thank you for supporting medical education research.