Podcasting in medical education: a review of the literature

Abstract

Podcasts are increasingly being used for medical education, both within teaching institutions and on an international scale by major journals. To date, there are no evidence-based guidelines for the development of educational podcasts. To review the state of the literature, MEDLINE, SCOPUS, and ERIC were searched in May 2016 for articles describing audio format podcasts used in medical education. Eighty-four articles met inclusion criteria. A qualitative synthesis of the evidence was done using Kirkpatrick’s model for evaluating outcomes. Twenty-four articles described reaction outcomes, eleven described learning outcomes, and one described behavioral outcomes. None measured patient impact. The literature demonstrates that podcasts are both feasible and accepted by learners. The mean length of reported podcasts was 18 minutes, which falls within the recommended range in at least one paper, and is consistent with reported listener preference. Interview format, clear disclosures, and accurate information were reported as desirable. There is limited evidence showing the efficacy of podcasts as teaching tools, or regarding best practices in making podcasts. More rigorous studies evaluating efficacy, changes in behavior, and changes in patient outcomes need to be performed in order to prove podcasts’ value and to justify production costs.

Social media in knowledge translation and education for physicians and trainees: a scoping review

“…Initially, this included mostly dissemination via blogs, wikis, and podcasts, but more recently has evolved to include other media, such as microblogging (e.g., Twitter), social networks (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn), and video-based outlets (e.g., YouTube). Increasingly, academic journals are leveraging social media to encourage readers to engage with their materials [14] and are experimenting with using online social media conversations [15,16], infographics [17,18] and podcasts [17,19,20] to increase readers' awareness of new publications. In many ways, knowledge translation is a scientist-based description of a phenomenon that overlaps with the individual end-user's education, especially when they intersect within social media platforms.…”

Podcasting in Medicine: The Current Content by Emergency Medicine Subspecialty

“…The use of podcasts to educate and inform physicians has been rapidly expanding; most recently graduated physicians and those still in training are increasingly exposed to podcasts during their formal and continuing education [1,[8][9][10]. While it has been shown that medical podcasts, in general, have increased in number and popularity over the past 20 years, a recent study had cataloged current medical podcasts and determined EM had the largest number of podcasts and the most available content [2,7].…”

“…EMS was found to have more active and inactive podcasts, but Medical Education was found to have a much higher amount of content, with 1.5-times the number of available episodes as EMS and 4-6-times the number of episodes as Ultrasound and Toxicology (the next two most active subspecialties). Other EM subspecialties had limited content available, which provides a gateway for members of these subspecialties to publish additional educational opportunities in what many learners have found to be a favorable means of obtaining medical content and potentially continuing medical education credit [1,2,[7][8][9][10].…”

Post-publication promotion in rheumatology: a survey focusing on social media

“…Over two-thirds (74) said they would like their publication promoted on social media, ResearchGate (70) being the most preferred platform, followed by Twitter (40), Facebook (37), WhatsApp (35), Academia.edu (27), and LinkedIn (26). Only five said they would not prefer their publication being promoted.…”