ABSTRACT
Aim: Much of medical education has been abruptly forced online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Traditional journal clubs thrive on group interaction and debate. The aim of this project is to assess whether an online surgical journal club could replicate this experience and learning. Method: A fortnightly, chat-based online surgical journal club with national reach was re-launched under SCALPEL (Manchester Medical School's surgical society) with defined learning objectives, inclusion of studies from different surgical sub-specialities and a proforma to aid critical appraisal. Anonymous feedback forms were sent to participants to assess confidence in critically appraising the literature before and after attendance, and differences in means were analysed using paired ttest. Results: 32 feedback forms from participants, the majority of whom were final year medical students (34.4%) were analysed. 28.1% had previously attended a journal club. 65.6% of attendees had prior involvement in a research project which led to a publication for 18.8%, while 59.4% were interested in applying for the Academic Foundation Programme (AFP). The self-reported confidence of participants to identify the study design, interpret the results and statistical analyses;and scrutinise the strengths and weaknesses of a study increased by 12.2%, 14.7% and 15.9% respectively (p=<0.001). Furthermore, 96.9% of attendees stated they would attend another online journal club in the future, with 59.4% favouring an online format. Conclusions: Online surgical journal clubs are effective and are here to stay following the conclusion of social distancing. They have the advantage of further outreach and may encourage greater participation than traditional journal clubs.