Quality indicators for blogs and podcasts used in medical education: modified Delphi consensus recommendations by an international cohort of health professions educators

Abstract

Background Quality assurance concerns about social media platforms used for education have arisen within the medical education community. As more trainees and clinicians use resources such as blogs and podcasts for learning, we aimed to identify quality indicators for these resources. A previous study identified 151 potentially relevant quality indicators for these social media resources. Objective To identify quality markers for blogs and podcasts using an international cohort of health professions educators. Methods A self-selected group of 44 health professions educators at the 2014 International Conference on Residency Education participated in a Social Media Summit during which a modified Delphi consensus study was conducted to determine which of the 151 quality indicators met the a priori ≥90% inclusion threshold. Results Thirteen quality indicators classified into the domains of credibility (n=8), content (n=4) and design (n=1) met the inclusion threshold. Conclusions The quality indicators that were identified may serve as a foundation for further research on quality indicators of social media-based medical education resources and prompt discussion of their legitimacy as a form of educational scholarship.

Use of podcast technology to facilitate education, communication and dissemination in palliative care: the development of the AmiPal podcast

“…15 These indicators were developed using a modified Delphi consensus of international healthcare professional educators. The indicators with ≥90% consensus (table 1) consist of 13 items (10 of which are relevant to podcasts) within themes that include: content, credibility, bias, transparency, academic rigour, functionality, use of resources, orientation and professionalism.…”

“…A possible explanation, presented by experts in medical education, may be that the listeners did not place importance on interacting with the podcast host. 15 Listeners may personally reflect on the podcast topics without feeling the need to communicate their reflections with the host. Consequently, it is not possible to determine if listeners found the podcasts beneficial.…”

How can emergency physicians harness the power of new technologies in clinical practice and education?

“…How then will we develop the skills to filter and appraise the quality and applicability of such universally accessible information? At present we don’t really know, but in a social age12 of medicine where increasingly content is free but understanding of it may not be, there are significant challenges for all of us in ED 13…”

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