Association of a Gamified Journal Club on Internal Medicine Residents' Engagement and Critical Appraisal Skills.

Background: Prior literature demonstrates internal medicine residents have suboptimal competence in critical appraisal. Journal clubs are a common intervention to address this skill, but engagement and critical appraisal skill improvement are variable. Objective: We evaluated journal club engagement and critical appraisal skills after implementation of a gamified format. Methods: This was a single-arm study, conducted from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, involving internal medicine residents at 2 US programs. Residents participated in a 12-month gamified journal club that sorted residents into 2 teams. Residents attended an orientation followed by 6 to 10 monthly, hour-long competitions. In each competition, a subset of the resident teams competed to answer a clinical prompt by critically appraising an original article of their choice. A chief medical resident or faculty member moderated each session and chose the winning team, which received a nominal prize of candy. The primary outcome was engagement, measured by a 7-question survey developed de novo by the authors with Likert scale responses at baseline and 12 months. The secondary outcome was critical appraisal skills assessed by the Berlin Questionnaire. Results: Sixty-one of 72 eligible residents (84.7%) completed both engagement surveys. Residents reported statistically significant improvements in most dimensions of engagement, including a higher likelihood of reading articles before sessions (posttest minus pretest score -1.08; 95% CI -1.34 to -0.82; P<.001) and valuing time spent (posttest minus pretest score -0.33; 95% CI -0.55 to -0.11; P=.004). Critical appraisal skills marginally improved at 12 months (posttest minus pretest score -0.84; 95% CI -1.54 to -0.14; P=.02). Conclusions: Our study demonstrates a gamified journal club was associated with improvements in engagement and minimal change in critical appraisal skills.

Comparing Corticosteroid Preparation and Dose in the Improvement of Shoulder Function and Pain: A Randomized, Single-Blind Pilot Study.

INTRODUCTION: Shoulder pain may arise from inflammation of the bursa separating the supraspinatus tendon from the coracoacromial ligament and acromion. The optimal treatment dose and preparation of intrabursal corticosteroid injection are unknown. METHODS: This single-blinded equivalence study recruited 62 subjects randomizing them to one of following four arms: methylprednisolone 20 mg, methylprednisolone 40 mg, triamcinolone acetonide 20 mg, or triamcinolone acetonide 40 mg. QuickDASH, subject-reported pain, and adverse events were recorded in time of injection, 3 days later, 3 wks later, and 6 wks later. Primary outcome was QuickDASH improvements 6 wks after injection. RESULTS: All four groups were equally matched regarding age, sex, ethnicity, and site injected. Six weeks after injection, no statistically significant changes were noted in QuickDASH improvement (as compared with time of injection) among the four arms. There were no statistically significant differences at 6 wks regarding improvement in pain. There were no statistically significant differences noted in adverse events among the four arms. CONCLUSIONS: Neither dose nor preparation of injectable corticosteroid influences magnitude of improvement in function or pain experienced. Although this study provides clinically relevant insight regarding corticosteroid dose and type when managing shoulder pain, the modest sample size may limit the conclusions that can be made about efficacy and adverse effects.