Critical Appraisal of Anesthesiology Educational Research for 2017

Abstract

Background Critical appraisals provide a method for establishing the status of an area of study or evaluating the effectiveness of literature within it. The purpose of this study was to review and appraise studies published in 2017 on medical education in anesthesiology and to provide summaries of the highest-quality medical education research articles in the field. Methods Three Ovid MEDLINE databases, Embase.com , Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), and PsycINFO, were searched followed by a manual review of articles published in the highest impact factor journals in both the fields of anesthesiology and medical education. Abstracts were double-screened and quantitative articles subsequently scored by three randomly assigned raters. Qualitative studies were scored by two raters. Two different rubrics were used for scoring quantitative and qualitative studies, both allowed for scores ranging from 1-25. Results A total of 864 unique citations were identified through the search criteria. Of those, 62 articles met the inclusion criteria, with 59 quantitative and three qualitative. The top 10 papers with the highest scores were reported and summarized. Discussion As the first article to critically review the literature available for education in anesthesiology, we hope that this study will serve as the first manuscript in an annual series that will help individuals involved in anesthesiology education gain an understanding of the highest-quality research in the field. Once this process is repeated, trends can be tracked and serve as a resource to educators and researchers in anesthesiology for years to come.

Residency Education Reform Program in Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care: An Academic Reform Model

“…Regarding the first outcome measures (targeted research activities), the study results demonstrated significantly improved indices (i.e. defining research priorities, defining research fields of interest, and defining research teams; Table 2), which were in concordance with similar studies; these indices denote that there has been im- proved definition for "Field of interest in research" associated with "Specialized research process", resulting in "Improved quality of research", "Novelty in research areas" and "Publishing in high-impact journals" (36,71,72).…”

Critical Appraisal of Anesthesiology Educational Research for 2020

“…The methods we used for this appraisal closely follow the methods for the Critical Appraisal of Anesthesiology Educational Research for 2019. 3 For the 2019 iteration, we modified the methodology to highlight articles that were especially innovative and relevant to educators, not just the articles with the most rigorous study design and implementation. Much of the description of the methodology for this study is added here verbatim from that article with some additional modifications.…”

“…We followed the same inclusion and exclusion criteria used by Heitz et al in the critical appraisal of research in education in emergency medicine and in previous years' critical appraisals of research in anesthesiology education. [2][3][4][5] We included all levels of learners (students, residents/ fellows, and practicing clinicians) and articles applicable to physicians, nurses, and other providers in the field of anesthesiology. Studies were defined as hypothesis-testing investigations, evaluations of education interventions, or explorations of educational problems.…”

“…The categories and the options under each category were selected based on the initial study by Heitz et al, a review of the top-cited articles in anesthesiology education, and data collected from previous years' critical appraisal articles. 2,[4][5][6] These additional questions and the questions for coding can be found in Appendix B. Two authors (R.M.…”

“…This study reviews and appraises peer-reviewed journal articles about anesthesiology education published in 2020. In this fourth iteration of our critical appraisal in anesthesiology education series, [2][3][4] we seek to highlight articles with rigorous designs and high-quality evidence as well as showcase articles that present innovative ideas relevant to the anesthesiology education community. We hope that anesthesiology educators will be able to use each study from the series to help inform their educational research and implement best practices.…”