Web 2.0 technologies (e.g., blogs, social networks, and wikis) are increasingly being used by medical schools and postgraduate training programs as tools for information dissemination. These technologies offer the unique opportunity to track metrics of user engagement and interaction.
Davidson et al. employed Web 2.0 tools to assess academic behaviors among neurosurgery residents.
They performed a retrospective review of all educational lectures, part of the core Neurosurgery Residency curriculum at the University of Toronto, posted on the teaching website (www.TheBrainSchool.net). The website was developed using publicly available Web 2.0 platforms. Lecture usage was assessed by the number of clicks, and associations were explored with lecturer academic position, the timing of examinations, and lecture/subspecialty topic.
The overall number of clicks on 77 lectures was 1079. Most of these clicks were occurring during the in-training examination month (43%). Click numbers were significantly higher on lectures presented by faculty (mean = 18.6, standard deviation ± 4.1) compared to those delivered by residents (mean = 8.4, standard deviation ± 2.1) (p = 0.031). Lectures covering topics in functional neurosurgery received the most clicks (47%), followed by pediatric neurosurgery (22%).
This study demonstrates the value of Web 2.0 analytic tools in examining resident study behavior. Residents tend to “cram” by downloading lectures in the same month of training examinations and display a preference for faculty-delivered lectures 1).
Bergamino et al. described the development and utilization of a relational database designed to manage the clinical and radiological data of patients with brain tumors. The Brain Tumor Database was implemented using MySQL v.5.0, while the graphical user interface was created using PHP and HTML, thus making it easily accessible through a web browser. This web-based approach allows for multiple institutions to potentially access the database. The BT Database can record brain tumor patient information (e.g. clinical features, anatomical attributes, and radiological characteristics) and be used for clinical and research purposes. Analytic tools to automatically generate statistics and different plots are provided. The BT Database is a free and powerful user-friendly tool with a wide range of possible clinical and research applications in neurology and neurosurgery. The BT Database graphical user interface source code and manual are freely available at http://tumorsdatabase.altervista.org 2).
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