Prepublication Podcast Peer Review: Summary of an Innovation

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Health Professions Education
• Digital Health

Background:

• Podcasts are widely used in health professions education due to accessibility.
• Concerns exist regarding the quality of health podcasts due to a lack of editorial oversight.
• This study piloted a prepublication peer review system for a pediatric podcast series.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and standardize a prepublication peer review process for a pediatric podcast.
• To assess the feasibility and effectiveness of peer review in ensuring podcast quality.

Main Methods:

• Adapted a Peer Review Tool for prepublication use, incorporating clinical expertise and subjective feedback.
• Developed a standardized peer review process similar to refereed journals.
• Trained volunteer nurse practitioner faculty as reviewers for a pediatric podcast series.

Main Results:

• An 11-episode series was reviewed by 23 nurse practitioners, with most episodes (90.9%) receiving the highest quality score.
• High interrater agreement was observed between peer reviewers, authors, and an external reviewer.
• Moderate reliability (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient = 0.45) was noted, influenced by score variability.

Conclusions:

• A standardized prepublication peer review effectively produced high-quality podcasts meeting established standards.
• The described process is replicable for podcast producers aiming to meet quality guidelines.
• Further research is recommended to enhance review tools, user training, and listener transparency.