Clinical trial NCT01051050: Use of Wikis and Evidence-Based Medicine in Surgical Practice
Official title: Using Wikis to Improve the Dissemination, Evaluation, and Application of Evidence-Based Medicine in Surgical Practice
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Evidence Based Medicine
Keywords: Evidence based medicine
Improving surgical residents skills and application of EBM in surgical practice
Lead sponsor: The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: University of Texas
First posted: 2010-01-18
Enrollment: 45
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL

Brief summary: The goal of this study is to improve surgical residents' skills in critically appraising the literature and to promote the dissemination and application of the best available evidence to surgical practice. The hypothesis is that mandatory participation, with faculty oversight, in a journal club wiki will improve the dissemination, evaluation, and application of evidence-based medicine (EBM) in a surgical residency program at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UT-Houston).

Detailed description: The translation of evidence-based medicine (EBM) to clinical practice requires training in literature searching and critical appraisal, which is particularly lacking in surgery. The demands of surgical residency coupled with the 80-hour work week make attendance at journal clubs suboptimal. Internet technology such as wikis, which are free user-friendly collaborative websites, may be a solution to improving resident participation in journal club-related activities, but their utility is highly dependent upon resident contributions and usage. We propose a pilot randomized trial of mandatory versus voluntary participation in a general surgery journal club wiki to verify its feasibility, sustainability, and impact on resident EBM skills as measured with a validated questionnaire. Secondary outcomes will include resident self-assessment of wiki usage and comfort with EBM skills and faculty-assessed resident application of these skills in weekly morbidity and mortality conferences. If the wiki is feasible and sustainable, then the project will be expanded to include other surgical disciplines and cohorts (i.e. students, fellows, other institutions, other medical disciplines) to ensure generalizability. If beneficial, wikis could not only improve resident EBM skills, but also have a halo effect on students and faculty, and ultimately wikis could improve patient care. The assembled multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional team has significant collective expertise in evidence-based medicine, medical education, library skills, and clinical trial design and analysis which are necessary for this project.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* General surgery residents at UT Health Science Center at Houston

Exclusion Criteria:

* Not a general surgery resident at UT Health Science Center at Houston

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in performance on a questionnaire
timeFrame: 1 year
Secondary outcomes:
measure: self-assessment of wiki usage
timeFrame: 1 year
measure: use of EBM in daily practice before and after the trial
timeFrame: 1 year
measure: comfort with critical appraisal of the literature using a 5-point Likert scale
timeFrame: 1 year
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Houston
country: United States
facility: University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston
state: Texas
Study officials:
affiliation: The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
name: Lillian S Kao, MD, MS
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: