A 5-Year Togetherness Success Story of a Multi-Institutional Journal Club Among Therapeutic Medical Physics Residents
Abstract
Purpose
A multi-institutional journal club (MIJC) was introduced by the AAPM’s Working Group on Multi-Institutional Journal Clubs for Residency Programs (WGJCRP) in 2021. As of 2022, 40% of therapy programs were participating. The MIJC program was intended to connect medical physics residents across institutions and provide an opportunity to practice scientific communication and engagement with a wider audience. However, there seems to be much variation in how these educational experiences are gained from club to club. This report highlights the success story of one MIJC group over a 5-year period.
Methods
The journal club data of one group of 4 institutions has been collected for the first 5 years since its inception. The data included: club scheduling, topics included, journals selected, number of sessions and speakers, presentation formats (traditional and debate), active participation, and the need for mentors. Resident engagement was qualitatively correlated with topics and presentation formats.
Results
The traditional journal club sessions were performed for the first 2 years, and then the debate format was introduced during the 2023-2024 academic year. Thereafter, debates represented between 33-60% of the sessions each year for the last 3 years. For the first 4 years, 16 out of the 33 journals presented were from AAPM publications, e.g., Med. Phys. and J Appl Clin Med Phys. The residents were more engaged on the topics relevant to current practice in the clinic. The debate format led to increased resident investment in topics, broader audience participation, and more insightful discussion
Conclusion
Active audience participation, selecting interesting cutting-edge topics, dedicated meeting times, and a mix of traditional and debate sessions were found to be key components to the success of the MIJC group. These findings may provide a roadmap for other groups to improve their MIJC experiences.