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Abstract
Background
As medical education shifted to a virtual environment during the early coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we evaluated how neurology podcasting may have been utilized during this period, and which features of podcasts have been more highly sought by a medical audience.
Methods
We conducted a retrospective analysis of neurology-themed blogs and/or podcasts between April 2019 and May 2020. Programs were eligible if they reported mean monthly downloads > 2000, were affiliated with an academic society, or offered continuing medical education credit. Thirty-day download counts were compared between study months, with adjustment for multiple testing. Exploratory analyses were performed to determine which podcast features were associated with higher downloads.
Results
Of the 12 neurology podcasts surveyed, 8 completed the survey and 5 met inclusion criteria. The median monthly download count was 2865 (IQR 869–7497), with significant variability between programs (p < 0.001). While there was a 358% increase in downloads during April 2020 when compared to the previous month, this was not significant (median 8124 [IQR 2913–14,177] vs. 2268 [IQR 540–6116], padj = 0.80). The non-significant increase in overall downloads during April 2020 corresponded to an increase in unique episodes during that month (r = 0.48, p = 0.003). There was no difference in 30-day downloads among episodes including COVID-19 content versus not (median 1979 [IQR 791–2873] vs. 1171 [IQR 405–2665], p = 0.28).
Conclusions
In this unique, exploratory study of academic neurology-themed podcasts, there was no significant increase in episode downloads during the early COVID-19 pandemic. A more comprehensive analysis of general and subspecialty medical podcasts is underway.
Details
; Boreskie, Patrick E 2 ; Strowd Roy 3 ; Rook, Robert 4 ; Goss Adeline 5 ; Al-Mufti, Fawaz 6 ; Rossow, Bonnie 7 ; Miller, Alexandra 8 ; Chamberlain, Amanda 4 ; London, Zachary 9 ; Hurley, Jennifer 10 ; Geocadin Romergryko 11 ; Richie, Megan 5 ; Isaacson, Richard 12 ; Rybinnik Igor 13 ; Chan, Teresa M 14 1 Cooper University Hospital, Cooper Neurological Institute, Camden, USA (GRID:grid.411896.3) (ISNI:0000 0004 0384 9827); University of Manitoba, Department of Emergency Medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, Winnipeg, Canada (GRID:grid.21613.37) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9609)
2 University of Manitoba, Department of Emergency Medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, Winnipeg, Canada (GRID:grid.21613.37) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9609)
3 Wake Forest School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Winston Salem, USA (GRID:grid.241167.7) (ISNI:0000 0001 2185 3318)
4 American Academy of Neurology, Minneapolis, USA (GRID:grid.417923.a) (ISNI:0000 0001 0280 2179)
5 University of California San Francisco, Department of Neurology, San Francisco, USA (GRID:grid.266102.1) (ISNI:0000 0001 2297 6811)
6 Westchester Medical Center at New York Medical College, Valhalla, USA (GRID:grid.260917.b) (ISNI:0000 0001 0728 151X)
7 Neurocritical Care Society, Chicago, USA (GRID:grid.260917.b)
8 Memorial Sloan Kettering, New York, USA (GRID:grid.51462.34) (ISNI:0000 0001 2171 9952)
9 University of Michigan, Department of Neurology, Ann Arbor, USA (GRID:grid.214458.e) (ISNI:0000000086837370)
10 American Neurological Association, Mount Laurel, USA (GRID:grid.427706.0) (ISNI:0000 0001 1034 3654)
11 Johns Hopkins Medical Institute, Department of Neurology, Baltimore, USA (GRID:grid.21107.35) (ISNI:0000 0001 2171 9311)
12 New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine, Department of Neurology, New York, USA (GRID:grid.5386.8) (ISNI:000000041936877X)
13 Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Department of Neurology, New Brunswick, USA (GRID:grid.430387.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8796)
14 McMaster University, Division of Emergency Medicine and Division of Education & Innovation, Department of Medicine, Hamilton, Canada (GRID:grid.25073.33) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8227)