Effect of Audience Response System on Morbidity and Mortality Conference Engagement

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Objectives: Morbidity and mortality (M & M) conference is a central part of emergency medicine residency training. While audience response systems have become popular in traditional didactic teaching, little research has looked at effects in the unique M & M conference setting. We aimed to evaluate the effects of an audience response system on engagement in emergency medicine morbidity and mortality conference. Methods: An SMS text and internet-based audience response system was integrated into the M & M conference at one site in our emergency medicine residency. Anonymous, quantitative data about respondents use of the system was collected. Conference attendees were also surveyed to assess their evaluation of the ease of engagement in conference, effects of audience response system on engagement in conference and on perceived audience distractions. Results: The number of participants varied by conference and ranged from 37 to 63 respondents who responded from 1 to 21 times per conference (median 2 responses per respondent per conference). Subjects who used the audience response system were significantly more likely to report improved engagement in conference (p = .002). Subjects with more seniority (Assistant, Associate and Full Professors) reported easier engagement with M&M conference in general (p = .003). The audience response system did not result in significant reduction in audience distractions. Unexpected benefits of the audience response system included increased opportunity for engagement as well as quality of feedback for speakers. Conclusions: The integration of an audience response system into our M&M conference resulted in increased engagement and improved quality of speaker feedback. Further research is needed to evaluate effects on learning retention and clarify effects on audience distractions and behavior.