Electrocardiogram training for residents: A curriculum based on Facebook and Twitter

Background: We studied whether social media applications can serve as effective educational tools for teaching electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation to medical residents. Methods: 39 emergency, family, and internal medicine residents participated in the 33-week ECG of the Week curriculum via Facebook and Twitter. ECG skill was assessed before and after the study with a 10-ECG quiz. Outcomes of interest included predictors of participant response rates and post-study quiz performance. Results: ECG quiz scores were 66% and 76% on the pre- and post-study assessments respectively. High-performing participants on the pre-study quiz were more likely to have above-average response rates to ECG challenges (36% vs. 0%, p = 0.015). There was no significant difference between pre and post-study quiz scores. Conclusions: Our social media-based ECG curriculum elicited the most participation in residents who were already above-average in ECG reading ability. Future designs will need to better reach residents with below-average baseline ECG reading ability. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.