An interactive web-based project to stimulate internal medicine resident reading using board-type questions.

Since restricted resident work hours have reduced resident participation in traditional educational activities, we wanted to evaluate e-mail-based education in an internal medicine residency. One internal medicine faculty member sent four clinical case-based questions per week to all internal medicine residents over a 10-month period (132 questions total). The mean percentage of participation on a set of questions was 69% (range, 43% to 97%). The mean percentage of correct answers on all questions for all residents was 70% (range, 15% to 100%). Seventy-three percent of the question sets resulted in an electronic interaction between the residents and the faculty sponsor. Based on an anonymous survey, 96% of the residents found the program useful. The faculty sponsor spent 60 to 150 minutes per week on this activity. We think that this program increased overall reading since it did not replace any traditional activity; further, it provided practice with board-type questions. This approach can supplement the educational curriculum for internal medicine training.