AzTrials
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Medical EducationNCT07126314

Critical Appraisals at Play

A study testing Competition based Education Format in people with Medical Education, run by Community Medical Center, Toms River, NJ at 1 site in United States.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
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Trial summary

Pre and Post assessment of knowledge and attitudes on critical appraisal of biomedical literature in Emergency Medicine practice in a cohort of residents with implementation of a competition based educational format. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 years and older
Conditions the study is for
Medical Education
What is being tested?
Competition based Education Format
Could I receive a placebo?
No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people
36 participants
Where
1 siteUnited States
Study dates
13 Aug 2025to 10 Jun 2026
Phase
Interventional
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 18 years and older
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Adult, Older adult

Who may be able to join

  • All emergency medicine residents at study site

Who cannot join

  • none

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

United States1 site

  • Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health Community Medical Center

    Toms River, New Jersey, 08755

Other trials in United States

About this study

Official title: Critical Appraisals at Play: Elevating EM Journal Clubs With Team-Based Competition

Pre and Post assessment of knowledge and attitudes on critical appraisal of biomedical literature in Emergency Medicine practice in a cohort of residents with implementation of a competition based educational format.

Read the detailed description

During the academic year of 2025-2026, the 36 Emergency Medicine residents of a community medicine affiliate of a tertiary medical center will be compete against each other during the journal club didactic. Three residents will be assigned each month, one from each year, to select a journal article matching the curricular content block of that month. Residents will submit their selected article after faculty approval.

Residents will submit their critiques of the journal articles prior to the scheduled journal club via a dedicated residency website. They will focus on potential methodological flaws of the article. This is congruent to how journal club didactics were focused in the past in the institution, so second and third years will have had exposure to this approach.

During journal club, besides having the resident that selected the article briefly present it, resident critiques will be discussed. A single point will be awarded to each resident for each critique they have submitted. For critiques of significant merit, as determined by the faculty, the journal club facilitator will invite the submitting resident to discuss their critique, and will be awarded 2 points. To discourage artificial intelligence (AI) use without learning, critiques will be selected at faculty discretion to be orally explained during journal club to the satisfaction of the faculty. The faculty have determined that if residents utilize AI as a tool to enhance their learning (instead of simply enumerating critiques blindly on a document), this is in service towards the goal of journal club, and should be encouraged.

As a reward, residents that have the highest running score will receive $100 Amazon gift cards, tiered by 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year academic status.

Attitudes towards the importance of critical assessment of scientific literature, self assessments of fluency in scientific literature appraisal, and the effectiveness of journal club, will be conducted via anonymous survey on RedCap at the beginning and end of the academic year. The survey utilized will be the modified version of a previously validated survey used by Haspel2. Additionally, residents will be assigned Journal Club based quizzes from Rosh Review13, a platform tailored for resident education, at the beginning and end of the year. Rosh Review provides comparative benchmarks that can be used to assess resident performance.

Being tested
Competition based Education Format
Keywords
Emergency Medicine education, Journal club innovation, Gamified learning, Critical appraisal skills, Team-based competition, Resident engagement, Didactic enhancement, Pre/post intervention, Survey-based evaluation, Emergency Medicine residents, Residency training programs

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • Competition based Education FormatOther

    Residents will be organized into 3 teams, each competing to amass points for critiquing articles presented during journal club, for a prize.

Study groups in NCT07126314
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Residency CohortExperimentalFull complement of site emergency medicine residents
Receives: Other: Competition based Education Format

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Change in score in knowledge based quiz

    A journal club based quiz, created by Rosh Review, will be administered pre and post. Changes in scores will be noted.

    Measured: 11 months

Secondary outcomes (3)

  1. Difference in knowledge quiz compared to benchmark score

    Differences in knowledge score compared to benchmark scores Rosh Review maintains

    Measured: 11 months

  2. Changes in attitudes regarding comfort in interpreting biomedical literature

    Changes in attitudes regarding comfort in interpreting biomedical literature as measured by validated survey

    Measured: 11 months

  3. Subjective assessment of value of curriculum

    Subjective assessment of value of curriculum by a survey with likert scale and free entry items

    Measured: 11 months

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted17 Aug 2025
  2. Study start13 Aug 2025
  3. Primary completion10 Jun 2026
  4. Study completion10 Jun 2026

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase N/A
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Model description
Pre and Post Intervention
Masking
None (open label)
Enrolment
36 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT07126314
Sponsor's protocol ID
25-007
Status last verified
Aug 2025
First submitted
8 Jul 2025
Last updated
20 Oct 2026
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
No

Publications

  • McLeod RS, MacRae HM, McKenzie ME, Victor JC, Brasel KJ; Evidence Based Reviews in Surgery Steering Committee. A moderated journal club is more effective than an Internet journal club in teaching critical appraisal skills: results of a multicenter randomized controlled trial. J Am Coll Surg. 2010 Dec;211(6):769-76. doi: 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2010.08.016. Epub 2010 Oct 29.

    PubMed 21036071

  • Horneff, J, Baldwin, K, Ahn, J.. "The Value of Journal Clubs in Orthopaedic Resident Education." (2010). University of Pennsylvania Orthopedic Journal

  • Dzara K, Frey-Vogel AS. Medical Education Journal Club for the Millennial Resident: An Interactive, No-Prep Approach. Acad Pediatr. 2019 Aug;19(6):603-607. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2019.05.004. Epub 2019 May 14.

    PubMed 31100347

  • Allon S, Baggett A, Hayes B, Glosemeyer K, Cavo J, Pacha R, Zurko J, Patel N, Kraemer R. Association of a Gamified Journal Club on Internal Medicine Residents' Engagement and Critical Appraisal Skills. J Grad Med Educ. 2023 Aug;15(4):475-480. doi: 10.4300/JGME-D-22-00812.1.

    PubMed 37637345

  • Moharari RS, Rahimi E, Najafi A, Khashayar P, Khajavi MR, Meysamie AP. Teaching critical appraisal and statistics in anesthesia journal club. QJM. 2009 Feb;102(2):139-41. doi: 10.1093/qjmed/hcn131. Epub 2008 Oct 8.

    PubMed 18842683

  • Luc JGY, Fowler CS, Eisenberg SB, Estrera AL, Wolf RK, Choi CW, Lawton JS, Martin LW, Nesbitt JC, Reznik SI, Nguyen TC, Vaporciyan AA, Antonoff MB; Thoracic Education Cooperative Group (TECoG). Multiinstitutional Evaluation of a Debate-Style Journal Club for Cardiothoracic Surgery Trainees. Ann Thorac Surg. 2022 Jul;114(1):327-333. doi: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2021.07.104. Epub 2021 Sep 20.

    PubMed 34547299

  • Linzer M, Brown JT, Frazier LM, DeLong ER, Siegel WC. Impact of a medical journal club on house-staff reading habits, knowledge, and critical appraisal skills. A randomized control trial. JAMA. 1988 Nov 4;260(17):2537-41.

    PubMed 3050179

  • Wegleitner, Elizabeth and Octavio R Chirino. "Join the Club: Integration of the CREOG Journal Club Curriculum Improves OBGYN Residents Statistical Literacy." Obstetrics & Gynecology (2019): 134():p 48S, October 2019

  • Hartzell JD, Veerappan GR, Posley K, Shumway NM, Durning SJ. Resident run journal club: a model based on the adult learning theory. Med Teach. 2009 Apr;31(4):e156-61. doi: 10.1080/01421590802516723.

    PubMed 19404887

  • Arti Muley, J. Lakhani "Evidence based vs traditional journal clubs: Time to switchover." The Journal of medical research 2015 1(1): 13-17 https://doi.org/10.31254/jmr.2015.1106

  • Haspel RL. Implementation and assessment of a resident curriculum in evidence-based transfusion medicine. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2010 Jul;134(7):1054-9. doi: 10.5858/2009-0328-OA.1.

    PubMed 20586637

  • Alavi-Moghaddam M, Yazdani S, Mortazavi F, Chichi S, Hosseini-Zijoud SM. Evidence-based Medicine versus the Conventional Approach to Journal Club Sessions: Which One Is More Successful in Teaching Critical Appraisal Skills? Chonnam Med J. 2016 May;52(2):107-11. doi: 10.4068/cmj.2016.52.2.107. Epub 2016 May 20.

    PubMed 27231674

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A study testing Competition based Education Format in people with Medical Education, run by Community Medical Center, Toms River, NJ at 1 site in United States.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 20 Oct 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Change in score in knowledge based quiz (time frame: 11 months). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT07126314, which also lists 12 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 20 Oct 2026.

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