Use of tablet (iPad®) as a tool for teaching anesthesiology in an orthopedic rotation

The goal of this study was to compare scores on house staff evaluations of "overall teaching quality" during a rotation in anesthesia for orthopedics in the first six months (n=11 residents were provided with curriculum in a printed binder) and in the final six months (n=9 residents were provided with the same curriculum in a tablet computer (iPad, Apple®, Inc, Cupertino, Ca)).

At the beginning of the two-week rotation, the resident was given an iPad containing: a syllabus with daily reading assignments, rotation objectives according to the ACGME core competencies, and journal articles. Prior to the study, these curriculum materials had been distributed in a printed binder. The iPad also provided peer reviewed internet sites and direct access to online textbooks, but was not linked to the electronic medical record. At the end of the rotation, residents anonymously answered questions to evaluate the rotation on an ordinal scale from 1 (unsatisfactory) to 5 (outstanding). All residents were unaware that the data would be analyzed retrospectively for this study.

The mean global rating of the rotation as assessed by "overall teaching quality of this rotation" increased from 4.09 (N=11 evaluations before intervention, SD 0.83, median 4, range 3-5) to 4.89 (N=9 evaluations after intervention, SD 0.33, median 5, range 4-5) p=0.04.

Residents responded favorably to the introduction of an innovative iPad based curriculum for the orthopedic anesthesia rotation. More studies are needed to show how such mobile computing technologies can enhance learning, especially since residents work at multiple locations, have duty hour limits, and the need to document resident learning in six ACGME core competencies.