Prospective study on the organization and efficiency of online journal club

Abstract

Background. Interest in journal clubs is still high. All authors report positive results on subjective parameters. But objective assessments of effectiveness are limited and contradictory. The aim of this study is to share our experience and the effectiveness of the journal club. Methods. The prospective cohort study. Our Journal club is held online. To become a member, a person needs to go through 3 steps (application form, tests, interview). Each meeting is conducted online using the Zoom client. The date, time and specialty are chosen by voting in the Telegram channel. The meetings are held in a discussion format. During each samples participants were also tested in EBM and statistics (experimental groups), as well as the contestants (control group). Results. Now there were 25 members in the JC. During the year there were 21 meetings. As for the 2nd sample, experimental group had better test results (p unadjusted = 0.032, p adjusted = 0.212). Then, regarding the 3rd sample the outcomes did not differ between the groups. Conclusion. The subjective results match the data from other studies. Objective assessments continue to be contradictory. The main limitations may be biases. Additional research is required to help better develop the methodology of organizing and evaluating the effectiveness of journal clubs.