A Point System as Catalyst to Increase Resident Scholarship: An MPCRN Study.

INTRODUCTION: Encouraging resident scholarly activity has been a longstanding challenge for medical educators. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has been increasing its emphasis on scholarly activity, forcing programs to evaluate their existing processes. This study sought to evaluate the impact of a scholarly activity point system on the resident scholarly productivity at multiple programs. METHODS: Five military family medicine residencies evaluated resident outcomes 2 years before and 2 years after the introduction of a scholarly activity point system. Outcome measures included peer-reviewed publications with a resident as first author, peer-reviewed publications with a resident as any author, resident presentation of scholarship at a regional, national, and international conference, IRB-approved protocols with a resident as principal investigator, and IRB-approved protocols with a resident in any role. RESULTS: Four of the five programs experienced substantial increases in nearly every outcome. The fifth program, which had a more robust culture of inquiry at baseline, did not experience an increase in resident scholarly productivity. CONCLUSIONS: A scholarly activity point system was associated with an increase in resident scholarly production in family medicine programs. It appears to work best in programs that start from a lower level of scholarly productivity at baseline. A point system appears to be a useful addition to scholarly activity curricula.

Body composition assessment failure rates and obesity in the United States Navy.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify subpopulations at high risk for body composition assessment (BCA) failure within the Navy. METHODS: This study was an institutional review board-approved retrospective review of data retrieved from the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Physical Readiness Information Management System. Data were considered clinically significant if a subpopulation's BCA failure rate was 10% or greater than that groups' gender average. The data obtained include the entire population, so no correction was necessary for sample bias and all differences are statistically significant. RESULTS: The prevalence of obesity was 13.6%. High-risk populations included age 36 to 40, rank of E5 and E6, females with a height between 68 and 69 inches, females 161 lb or heavier, males 201 lb or heavier, females with a body mass index of 27 or greater, and males with a body mass index of 29 or greater. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified multiple at risk populations for BCA failure. As we move forward with programs designed to combat increasing obesity rates, such as the Department of Defense Healthy Base Initiative, further resources and studies can be aimed toward these higher risk subpopulations.

A call for greater power in an era of publishing negative results.

Historically, medical journals published only positive results from experimentation. With the growth of electronic media, many journals are now able to publish negative results as well. Because most medical experiments are designed to have different thresholds of significance for positive and negative results, this can lead readers to misunderstand the level of significance of a published negative result. We propose a technical shift - setting α equal to ß - to avoid this potential for misunderstanding.

Curriculum changes to increase research in a family medicine residency program.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Scholarly activity is an important component of residency programs. Amidst many other professional obligations, finding time and support for resident research can be challenging. Thus, it is important to equip residents with the tools needed to perform scholarly activity both during and after residency. METHODS: We studied a series of curriculum initiatives on scholarly productivity at Naval Hospital Jacksonville. Educational interventions were rolled out in three parts. First, a faculty research coordinator (FRC) was established. Second, a scholarly activity point system was adapted from one published by Seehusen et al, along with research and conference tracking systems. Third, a resident research coordinator (RRC) position was created. The FRC and RRC acted as liaisons between residents, faculty, and non-faculty staff and created an annual scholarly activity workshop. Scholarly productivity was analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Prior to the roll out of these curriculum changes, the number of resident scholarly projects per resident, defined as regional or higher posters/presentations and peer-reviewed publications, was 0.07 with four residents involved. In 2012, the research per resident was 0.91, with 26 residents involved. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis reveals an association between these new curricular initiatives and increased research among residents, similar to growth demonstrated by the innovations of Seehusen et al. Limitations of this study include reliance on the accuracy of past records and a small sample size. We believe this is a model that could be implemented in other residency programs to support scholarly activity requirements.