Trial reportJournal of general internal medicine2008
Knowledge retention after an online tutorial: a randomized educational experiment among resident physicians.
Trial report in Journal of general internal medicine, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Standardised formal resuscitation training programmes for reducing mortality and morbidity in newborn infants.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Standardised formal resuscitation training programmes for reducing mortality and morbidity in newborn infants.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2015Pooled it
- Educational Animation Video Improves Knowledge and Health-Seeking Behavior in Women With Urinary Incontinence: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Neurourology and urodynamics · 2026Trial
- Effect of E-learning clinical management of substance-dependent pregnant women on the knowledge and clinical skill performance of midwives: a randomized controlled trial.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Trial
- A comparison between the effectiveness of a gamified approach with the conventional approach in point-of-care ultrasonographic training.BMC medical education · 2020Trial
- Development and Evaluation of a New Serious Game for Continuing Medical Education of General Practitioners (Hygie): Double-Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2019Trial
- Learning through a virtual patient vs. recorded lecture: a comparison of knowledge retention in a trauma case.International journal of medical education · 2018Trial
- The acquisition and retention of ECG interpretation skills after a standardized web-based ECG tutorial-a randomised study.BMC medical education · 2015Trial
- Pairing physician education with patient activation to improve shared decisions in prostate cancer screening: a cluster randomized controlled trial.Annals of family medicineTrial
- IMPACT Requests: Evaluating the Effectiveness of IMPACT Education for Emergency Department Referrers to Improve the Quality of CT Requests.Journal of medical radiation sciences · 2026Article
- A clinically contextualized, hands-on biostatistics workshop for rheumatology fellows-in-training: a quasi-experimental pre-post educational intervention study.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- An evaluation of an online education module to improve clinician knowledge and management of eating disorders in the peripartum: a three-month follow-up.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Implementation and Evaluation of a Trainee Orientation Manual in an Intensive Care Unit Rotation.ATS scholar · 2024Article
- Effect of Dental Practicality Index training using an online video on decision-making and confidence level in treatment planning by dental undergraduates.Restorative dentistry & endodontics · 2024Article
- Assessing the Difficulty and Long-Term Retention of Factual and Conceptual Knowledge Through Multiple-Choice Questions: A Longitudinal Study.Advances in medical education and practice · 2024Article
- Cultural Appropriation for Improved Knowledge Acquisition in Medical Education [Response to Letter].Advances in medical education and practice · 2024Article
- Learning Theories Versus Practice: How Do Internal Medicine Residents Study for Licensing Examinations?Cureus · 2023Article
- Point of care obstetric ultrasound knowledge retention among mid-wives following a training program: a prospective cohort pilot study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2023Article
- HIV Care Meets Telehealth: a Review of Successes, Disparities, and Unresolved Challenges.Current HIV/AIDS reports · 2022Review
- Need to review anaesthesia curriculum and education!Indian journal of anaesthesia · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe time course of physicians' knowledge retention after learning activities has not been well characterized. Understanding the time course of retention is critical to optimizing the reinforcement of knowledge.
designEducational follow-up experiment with knowledge retention measured at 1 of 6 randomly assigned time intervals (0-55 days) after an online tutorial covering 2 American Diabetes Association guidelines.
participantsInternal and family medicine residents. MEASUREMENTS: Multiple-choice knowledge tests, subject characteristics including critical appraisal skills, and learner satisfaction.
resultsOf 197 residents invited, 91 (46%) completed the tutorial and were randomized; of these, 87 (96%) provided complete follow-up data. Ninety-two percent of the subjects rated the tutorial as "very good" or "excellent." Mean knowledge scores increased from 50% before the tutorial to 76% among those tested immediately afterward. Score gains were only half as great at 3-8 days and no significant retention was measurable at 55 days. The shape of the retention curve corresponded with a 1/4-power transformation of the delay interval. In multivariate analyses, critical appraisal skills and participant age were associated with greater initial learning, but no participant characteristic significantly modified the rate of decline in retention.
conclusionsEducation that appears successful from immediate posttests and learner evaluations can result in knowledge that is mostly lost to recall over the ensuing days and weeks. To achieve longer-term retention, physicians should review or otherwise reinforce new learning after as little as 1 week.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.