The content expert program: A structured approach to increase emergency medicine resident scholarly activity

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Graduate Medical Training
• Scholarly Activity

Background:

• Accreditation bodies mandate resident participation in scholarship.
• Residency programs must foster scholarly skill development.
• Lack of consensus on scholarship definition and program structure exists.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and implement a Content Expert Program (CEP).
• To increase scholarly outputs per resident.
• To foster a structured environment for scholarly activities.

Main Methods:

• Implemented a CEP where residents developed longitudinal scholarly activities with faculty advisors.
• Oversight committee provided guidance and feedback.
• Compared scholarly outputs to baseline using Mann-Whitney U test.

Main Results:

• 76 residents generated 187 scholarly outputs (2.5 per resident), a significant increase from the baseline of 1 output per resident (p=0.003).
• Outputs spanned 18 types across educational, operational, research, and miscellaneous domains.
• 37 outputs were interdepartmental, 42 interdisciplinary, and 32 intradepartmental.

Conclusions:

• The CEP sustainably increased scholarly activity and collaboration.
• The program enhanced practical education in residency.
• Successful implementation requires appropriate structure and faculty involvement.