How about a journal club?

Carlos Danger

Carlos Danger

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A forum or sub-forum where a member would start a new thread with a link to a research article or abstract that applies to EMS.

Members would then discuss the article, it's methodology, how it applies to different EMS settings, and how it might be incorporated into practice.

It would be a way for members to stay abreast of research that pertains to EMS, and for those with no formal training in analyzing research to learn how to do so.

I would be happy to suggest rules for how the discussions might be structured. The way that abstracts should be presented and articles should be cited, how to go about critically analyzing a piece of research, etc.
 
Halothane said:
A forum or sub-forum where a member would start a new thread with a link to a research article or abstract that applies to EMS.

Members would then discuss the article, it's methodology, how it applies to different EMS settings, and how it might be incorporated into practice.

It would be a way for members to stay abreast of research that pertains to EMS, and for those with no formal training in analyzing research to learn how to do so.

I would be happy to suggest rules for how the discussions might be structured. The way that abstracts should be presented and articles should be cited, how to go about critically analyzing a piece of research, etc.
Click to expand...

You may be interested in Brandon O's Digital Research Library.
 
Halothane said:
A forum or sub-forum where a member would start a new thread with a link to a research article or abstract that applies to EMS.

Members would then discuss the article, it's methodology, how it applies to different EMS settings, and how it might be incorporated into practice.

It would be a way for members to stay abreast of research that pertains to EMS, and for those with no formal training in analyzing research to learn how to do so.

I would be happy to suggest rules for how the discussions might be structured. The way that abstracts should be presented and articles should be cited, how to go about critically analyzing a piece of research, etc.
Click to expand...

I think this is an outstanding idea. My agency is always changing from what I can see. I would love it if it were easier to stay on top of research that will effect us so I can contribute to the direction we're heading.
 
Halothane said:
A forum or sub-forum where a member would start a new thread with a link to a research article or abstract that applies to EMS.

Members would then discuss the article, it's methodology, how it applies to different EMS settings, and how it might be incorporated into practice.

It would be a way for members to stay abreast of research that pertains to EMS, and for those with no formal training in analyzing research to learn how to do so.

I would be happy to suggest rules for how the discussions might be structured. The way that abstracts should be presented and articles should be cited, how to go about critically analyzing a piece of research, etc.
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I thought that was the purpose of the Advanced Medical Discussions forum
 
Halothane said:
What I am proposing is quite different from that forum.
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I don't see how, but let's say for the sake of argument it is. Why should we add that forum when the Advanced Medical Discussions isn't even being used?

Another thing I want to ask is that since most journal articles are copyrighted and/or behind pay walls, how do you propose to get the information to this site in order to facilitate the discussion?
 
ffemt8978 said:
I don't see how <it would be different from Advanced Medical Discussions>
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Because this would be a forum focused specifically on research, not just on general discussion of "advanced topics". In fact, much important research focuses on very basic topics, such as spinal immobilization, oxygen administration, etc.

Different from a casual "discussion" forum, a journal club would require a fairly standard format to the way that an article is presented and analyzed critically. Not super rigid, like "oh you didn't use perfect APA format, so we had to delete your post", but there are correct and incorrect ways to cite articles and write the references, and there are specific methods of going about analyzing an article. These are things that we should all know. This would need to be spelled out in a sticky.

We could also have a sticky that defines certain terms and statistics, to help educate those who aren't familiar.

ffemt8978 said:
Why should we add that forum when the Advanced Medical Discussions isn't even being used?
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Because they are different things. One is just general discussion of "advanced" topics, the other is focused and structured discussion of research, which isn't necessarily even on advanced topics.

I think the reason Advanced Medical Discussions isn't used is because everything that should/could go in there just gets lumped into the main ALS forum.

Structured discussions on research, however, are distinct enough from general discussion that it would be easy to distinguish where it goes.

ffemt8978 said:
Another thing I want to ask is that since most journal articles are copyrighted and/or behind pay walls, how do you propose to get the information to this site in order to facilitate the discussion?
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Abstracts are always free. They can simply be copied and pasted along with the citation. If the full-text article is free (quite a few are), then that can be linked to. While it's obviously ideal to have the full text, a well-written abstract generally tells you all you need to know to have a good discussion.

Plus, those of us on here who have access to full-text articles through our university or hospital could answer questions about an article that isn't answered by the abstract.

Also, Fair Use allow us to copy and paste certain small but important parts of the article, as long as appropriate formatting and references are used.


How about create the forum and give it 90 days? After 3 months, if no one is using it, merge the threads in it with Advanced Medical Discussions and delete the Journal Club forum.

:D
 
How about you use the Advanced Medical Discussions for 90 days and if we see any intrest in it, we can revisit the idea then.
 
ffemt8978 said:
How about you use the Advanced Medical Discussions for 90 days and if we see any intrest in it, we can revisit the idea then.
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That might be okay but some might not look at that section.

A separate journal section would give some a chance to see many other professional journals rather than JEMS. Also, one article might be discussed at one time or a literature review might be done. Almost every health care professional website has a journal review. But, you may not have noticed since most professionals have closed websites so we can openly use our name and that of our facilities. We also share the articles we have been part of authoring or at least participated in gathering the research. The problem on this site some might share their own company's information but then in another post say something very inappropriate about a patient which then puts them and their company in an unprofessional light.
 
Let me put it this way...we're not going to create another forum until we see that there is a need. That need is best demonstrated by active usage/interest over a period of time. And then we have to balance that with the need not to overload the forum with a plethera of sub-forums.

I am not necessarily opposed to creating the new forum, but I am opposed to creating a forum just for the sake of creating one.
 
I understand not wanting to create a new forum without confidence that it will be used.

But I don't think simply creating a thread in another forum will work, for the reasons I explained in my last post. Especially in a forum that gets little use already.
 
Christopher said:
You may be interested in Brandon O's Digital Research Library.
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*slips Chris a fiver*

I think this is a great idea. Journal clubs are a unique and well-established tradition that really help people understand how to tackle the important business of reading literature. Everybody benefits.

We could certainly focus on freely-available articles, or I'd be happy to post some others for general use. (In fact, if you flip through the DRL and see something you want to use, just request it -- that's what it's for.)

I'd be happy to help out. I imagine this might not be any more formal, at least to start, than posting articles and inviting discussion. But it might be really helpful to designate one or more moderators (informally) to help guide the discussion, and perhaps to have an outline of points to investigate from each paper (i.e. is the population relevant to EMS? is there any bias apparent in the authorship? what's the gold standard and is it appropriate?). Then people can chime in by highlighting one or more of those topics and speaking to them directly.
 
Halothane said:
I understand not wanting to create a new forum without confidence that it will be used.

But I don't think simply creating a thread in another forum will work, for the reasons I explained in my last post. Especially in a forum that gets little use already.
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It wouldn't be a running thread like the 100% Directionless Thread...it should be an individual thread per journal article.
 
ffemt8978 said:
It wouldn't be a running thread like the 100% Directionless Thread...it should be an individual thread per journal article.
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I think this is a reasonable way to start things, although I agree that if interest is demonstrated it would be nice to have a dedicated forum. But the Advanced Medical forum hardly gets any eyeballs; how about in EMS Talk?
 
Brandon O said:
I think this is a reasonable way to start things, although I agree that if interest is demonstrated it would be nice to have a dedicated forum. But the Advanced Medical forum hardly gets any eyeballs; how about in EMS Talk?
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The reason it doesn't get eyeballs is two fold...

The biggest is that there are very few posts in there. More posts = more eyeballs.

The second has to do with where it's located, but that is a decision we made when we created it.
 
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