Summary Background The use of cell phone text messaging in the medical field is of growing interest, but there are few data examining its value in medical education. The text4peds educational text‐messaging program was created for third‐year medical students preparing for the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) paediatric subject examination. Methods A randomised, controlled trial was conducted with third‐year medical students on their paediatric clerkship. Students in the intervention group received daily messages consisting of multiple‐choice questions with links to online material. The control group received no text messages. The impact of the intervention was assessed by examining the participants’ NBME examination scores and by participant surveys. Results A total of 162 students participated in the study. There was no statistical difference between the two groups, with the texting group having a mean score of 77.7 and with the non‐texting group having a mean score of 77.8 on the NBME. Subgroup analysis examining the effect of anticipated specialty and online material interaction also failed to find any statistically significant difference. Students reported satisfaction with the program, with 84% rating the text messages as helpful. The students rated their participation as high, with 92% saying that they looked at the messages more than 60% of the time. Among those who received text messages, 90% would recommend the program to others. Conclusion A text‐messaging‐based educational tool had a perceived positive educational value for medical students. This study failed to show any statistically significant impact on NBME examination scores from the text‐messaging intervention.

Objective Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection is a major cause of serious morbidity and mortality in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). There is no clear consensus on infection control measures. Some approaches to MRSA colonization management may be burdensome with unclear benefits. The objective of this study was to determine if stopping weekly MRSA surveillance with active detection and contact isolation (ADI) was associated with a change in infection rate. Study Design This is a retrospective cohort study of infants admitted to two affiliated NICUs. The ADI cohort infants received weekly nasal MRSA cultures and were placed in contact isolation if MRSA colonized for the duration of their hospitalization. The No Surveillance cohort infants were only placed in isolation if there was active MRSA infection or if MRSA colonization was identified incidentally. The rates of infection were determined between the cohorts. Results There were 8,406 neonates representing 193,684 NICU days in the comparison period. In the ADI cohort, MRSA colonization occurred in 3.4% of infants and infection occurred in 29 infants (0.4%). There were no differences between cohorts in the percent of infants with a MRSA infection at any site (0.5 vs. 0.5%, p = 0.89), rate of MRSA infections per 1,000 patient-days (0.197 vs. 0.201, p = 0.92), rate of bloodstream infections (0.12 vs. 0.26%, p = 0.18), or in the overall mortality rate (3.7 vs. 3.0% p = 0.13). ADI represented an annual cost of $590,000. Conclusion The rates of MRSA infection did not change when weekly ADI was discontinued and was associated with a decrease in cost and resource utilization. Key Points