Background/Purpose:
A previous study has demonstrated a web based Image of the Month can increase rheumatology exposure for internal medicine residents over 1 year with minimal additional manpower or financial resources. It remains unclear whether or not this effect would persist over a longer duration, or in the transition from junior to senior resident. This study examines this question with an analysis of 3 years’ experience of the web based Image of the Month.
Methods: An Image of the Month webpage was established in July 2010 on the www.EdmontonRheumatology.com website, a site representing rheumatologists in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Each month, a rheumatologist was responsible for posting a new image with a question which could be answered and submitted online by University of Alberta Internal Medicine residents. At the end of each month, a token book prize was awarded randomly to a correctly submitted respondent.
Results:
The Image of the Month webpage has posted images monthly for 35 months since July 2010. There was no cost to implement the program as the website already existed and there was pre-existing funding for the book prize. The rheumatologist required no more than 15 minutes monthly to administer the contest. The webpage had 2517 visits (average 72 visits/month) between July 2010 and May 2013. Resident participation was constant over time (p>0.05), with 46/80 (57.5%) residents participating in 2010/11, 49/85 (57.6%) in 2011/12, and 59/92 (64.1%) in 2012/13, with each resident participating on average 3.6, 4.2, and 3.2 times/year respectively. Rheumatology exposure was also improved consistently (p>0.05), as there were 35/80 (43.8%) residents in 2010/11 who did not complete a rheumatology rotation but participated in the Image of the Month, 34/85 (40%) in 2011/12, and 40/92 (43.5%) in 2012/13. There was a small decrease in participation as residents transitioned from a junior to senior level, as the 2010/11 first year resident cohort went from 25 participants to 20 in their second and third years of residency, while the 2011/12 first year cohort went from 20 to 19 participants in their second year of residency.
Conclusion:
The Image of the Month webpage successfully improves rheumatology exposure to internal medicine residents with minimal resources required. Further, increased exposure remains persistent over time as most residents continue to participate as they gain seniority. Further study is necessary to determine the impact this exposure may have on the musculoskeletal clinical skills of internal medicine residents.
Disclosure:
S. J. Katz,
None;
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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/increasing-rheumatology-exposure-to-internal-medicine-residents-3-year-analysis-of-a-web-based-image-of-the-month/