Article type
Year
Abstract
Background:
Founded in 2016, and supported by Cochrane UK, the Cochrane UK and Ireland Trainees Advisory Group (CUKI-TAG) aims to improve the engagement of medical and dentistry trainees with evidence-based medicine, in particular the work of the Cochrane Collaboration.
Since 2018, CUKI-TAG has used Twitter to run a number of online journal clubs on a variety of topics. The journal club date and research paper to be discussed are advertised in advance on social media. Questions to be used during the journal club, to help stimulate discussion on the paper, are prepared prior to the event and reviewed by the Cochrane UK team. Journal club participants join the event by using #cochranetrainees, or following @CochraneUK, on Twitter.
Objectives:
To evaluate the impact of CUKI-TAG Twitter journal clubs. To discuss the challenges and future opportunities for the CUKI-TAG Twitter journal club.
Methods:
We used Twitter Analytics to evaluate the number of participants, number of impressions (number of people who could potentially see a tweet) and engagements (number of people who interact with a tweet e.g. reply, click on a link within tweet). Feedback from CUKI-TAG committee members was sought via an online survey tool and during committee meetings. Ad-hoc qualitative feedback was also received from participants.
Results:
Six Twitter journal clubs have taken place since 2018. The mean number of participants was 31, with a mean of 125 tweets and 1.66 million impressions for each journal club. Feedback from the CUKI-TAG committee identified paper selection, finding topics applicable to a range of specialities, making trainees aware of the journal club and running the journal club at a manageable pace as the main challenges.
Conclusions:
The CUKI-TAG Twitter journal club appears to be an effective way to reach a large number of participants. Going forwards we plan to run journal clubs more regularly (monthly/ bi-monthly) and will try to broaden engagement by selecting topics relevant across multiple specialties and advertising the journal club through organisations that come in to regular contact with trainees such as training bodies. Additionally, we would like to help trainees develop skills in other areas, such as reflective practice and knowledge implementation, by generating discussions, for example, on how trainees could use evidence based medicine to change their own practice and the practice of the team or department they work within.
Additionally, the Twitter journal club is low cost offers the opportunity to engage trainees rapidly and globally, and this may be of particular value in low income countries where there may not be ready access to evidence based medicine training.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: Patients or healthcare consumers were not involved
Founded in 2016, and supported by Cochrane UK, the Cochrane UK and Ireland Trainees Advisory Group (CUKI-TAG) aims to improve the engagement of medical and dentistry trainees with evidence-based medicine, in particular the work of the Cochrane Collaboration.
Since 2018, CUKI-TAG has used Twitter to run a number of online journal clubs on a variety of topics. The journal club date and research paper to be discussed are advertised in advance on social media. Questions to be used during the journal club, to help stimulate discussion on the paper, are prepared prior to the event and reviewed by the Cochrane UK team. Journal club participants join the event by using #cochranetrainees, or following @CochraneUK, on Twitter.
Objectives:
To evaluate the impact of CUKI-TAG Twitter journal clubs. To discuss the challenges and future opportunities for the CUKI-TAG Twitter journal club.
Methods:
We used Twitter Analytics to evaluate the number of participants, number of impressions (number of people who could potentially see a tweet) and engagements (number of people who interact with a tweet e.g. reply, click on a link within tweet). Feedback from CUKI-TAG committee members was sought via an online survey tool and during committee meetings. Ad-hoc qualitative feedback was also received from participants.
Results:
Six Twitter journal clubs have taken place since 2018. The mean number of participants was 31, with a mean of 125 tweets and 1.66 million impressions for each journal club. Feedback from the CUKI-TAG committee identified paper selection, finding topics applicable to a range of specialities, making trainees aware of the journal club and running the journal club at a manageable pace as the main challenges.
Conclusions:
The CUKI-TAG Twitter journal club appears to be an effective way to reach a large number of participants. Going forwards we plan to run journal clubs more regularly (monthly/ bi-monthly) and will try to broaden engagement by selecting topics relevant across multiple specialties and advertising the journal club through organisations that come in to regular contact with trainees such as training bodies. Additionally, we would like to help trainees develop skills in other areas, such as reflective practice and knowledge implementation, by generating discussions, for example, on how trainees could use evidence based medicine to change their own practice and the practice of the team or department they work within.
Additionally, the Twitter journal club is low cost offers the opportunity to engage trainees rapidly and globally, and this may be of particular value in low income countries where there may not be ready access to evidence based medicine training.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: Patients or healthcare consumers were not involved