Trial reportAdvances in health sciences education : theory and practice2021
Does spaced education improve clinical knowledge among Family Medicine residents? A cluster randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Spaced Digital Education for Health Professionals: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Pooled it
- Effectiveness of spaced repetition for clinical problem solving amongst undergraduate medical students studying paediatrics in Pakistan.BMC medical education · 2024Trial
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
27 authors at 14 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Spaced education is a learning strategy to improve knowledge acquisition and retention. To date, no robust evidence exists to support the utility of spaced education in the Family Medicine residency. We aimed to test whether alerts to encourage spaced education can improve clinical knowledge as measured by scores on the Canadian Family Medicine certification examination.
methodWe conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial to empirically and pragmatically test spaced education using two versions of the Family Medicine Study Guide mobile app. 12 residency training programs in Canada agreed to participate. At six intervention sites, we consented 335 of the 654 (51%) eligible residents. Residents in the intervention group were sent alerts through the app to encourage the answering of questions linked to clinical cases. At six control sites, 299 of 586 (51%) residents consented. Residents in the control group received the same app but with no alerts. Incidence rates of case completion between trial arms were compared using repeated measures analysis. We linked residents in both trial arms to their knowledge scores on the certification examination of the College of Family Physicians of Canada.
resultsOver 67 weeks, there was no statistically significant difference in the completion of clinical cases by participants. The difference in mean exam scores and the associated confidence interval did not exceed the pre-defined limit of 4 percentage points.
conclusionFurther research is recommended before deploying spaced educational interventions in the Family Medicine residency to improve knowledge.
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Registered trials
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