Continuing Medical Education in an On-Demand World: Is Podcasting the Netflix of Medical Education?

• DOI: 10.1542/hpeds.2019-0093
• Publication Date: 2019-10-01T13:29:13Z
• Authors: Tony R. Tarchichi; John Szymusiak
• Keywords: Hospital Medicine; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Humans; Education, Medical, Continuing; Pediatrics; Webcasts as Topic; 3. Good health

Podcasting, like many new technologies, provides the opportunity to make learning more convenient and efficient. Since gaining popularity as a medium in the early 2000s, there is a growing number of podcasts in the medical field that target the lay public, patients, and health care professionals.1 In 2018, the Edison Report stated that 44% of Americans had listened to a podcast in their lifetime, and 26% listened in the past month.2 These percentages have consistently risen since 2008.2 Regular podcast listeners tend to have an advanced degree, full-time employment, and a higher annual household income than the general US population.2 The Edison Report also states that podcasting takes advantage of commute time, and as per the US Census Bureau, the average American commute is 26 minutes each way.2 Given this reported average listener profile, physicians seem ideal targets for podcast-based education. Podcasts are currently used in a variety of ways for medical education. The earliest adopters of medical education podcasting were emergency physicians and intensivists.3 Residents have been quick to adopt podcasts as part of their medical education toolbox because they tend to be younger and more likely to use technology. Mallin et al4 showed that …