How to Enhance Your Journal Club and Improve Evidence-Based Medicine Education (Evidence-Based Healthcare & Implementation Interest Group-Sponsored)
Journal clubs have long been a key method for teaching current medical literature, typically used in residency training to review advances in medicine and critically appraise the literature. However, questions about their efficacy and ideal format persist. This panel discussion will examine journal clubs from multiple perspectives and seek to develop an optimal model. Knowledge translation is crucial in emergency medicine residency curricula, particularly with new milestones focused on evidence-based clinical practice. Journal clubs serve as a primary means for teaching residents to critically appraise literature to inform clinical decisions. Keeping sessions engaging and approachable can be challenging. This session will explore how journal club leaders can enhance their sessions with modern techniques and alternatives outside the traditional setting. Panelists, representing the Evidence-Based Healthcare and Implementation Science Interest Group, will discuss critical evaluation of methodology, statistical analysis, and applicability to emergency medicine, comparing team and mentoring approaches.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe the pros and cons of having a Journal Club.
- Describe the pros and cons of various formats for Journal Club.
- Describe the elements that should be discussed in Journal Club
- Discuss options for this process following residency and in independent EM practice.
Presenters:
- Dan Mayer, MD
- Bryan G. Kane, MD, FACEP
- Mark F. Olaf, DO, FACEP
- Brian Milman, MD
- Katherine D. Mayes, MD, PhD
- Martin P. Wegman, MD, PhD, FACEP
- Kevin J. Mercer, PharmD, MPH
- Kevin McGurk, MD
- James H. Paxton, MD, MBA
- Steven M. Hochman, MD
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Dan Mayer, MD
Albany Medical College
I have practiced as an Emergency Medicine physician for the past 43 years. I have been teaching for the past 37 years and practicing clinical Emergency Medicine for 35 years in a variety of hospital settings including academic urban emergency departments and rural community hospital emergency departments. I was an attending Emergency Medicine physician at Albany Medical Center Hospital from 1987 until my retirement in 2014. I also taught evidence-based medicine, medical decision-making and Emergency Medicine at Albany Medical College. I have taught medical students, other health science students, residents and attending physicians. Currently I teach EBM to dental residents through NYU Dental School. I have been board certified in Emergency Medicine since 1984. I am currently retired from active clinical practice and still active in publishing medical research in Emergency Medicine and teaching EBM to dental residents. I am an Associate Editor for the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine and JACEP Open. I was an associate editor for MedEdPORTAL for 12 years and still perform reviews for them. I have been an outstanding peer-reviewer for Academic Medicine, JACEP Open, Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, Academic Emergency Medicine, MedEdPORTAL, and Annals of Emergency Medicine. I have given many presentations on EBM, Team Based Learning, Diagnostic error, Peer review, and critical appraisal at many national and international meetings.
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Bryan G. Kane, MD, FACEP
Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network
Bryan Kane, MD is a Professor of Medicine with the University of South Florida. His teaching and research abilities were recognized with induction to the University's Academy of Distinguished Educators and to the Robert A. Good Honor Society. At Lehigh Valley Health Network, he is the Associate Program Director (Research) for the Emergency Medicine Residency. Currently the President of the Medical Staff, he has previously served on the Institutional Review Board as the Vice-Chair. A past Chair of SAEM's Evidence Based Healthcare Improvement IG, he led a consensus effort to evaluate the resident Scholarly Requirement. He currently serves on SAEM's Workforce Taskforce. He is active in CORD, having served as the Research Track Chair and on the COVID Taskforce. Within ACEP, he has authored textbook chapters, is on the PACEP Research Committee, and was named "PACEP Physician of the Year". He received his undergraduate degree at Yale, completed medical school at UPenn, and trained in Emergency Medicine at Yale. His educational passions are around Evidence Based Medicine, where he has designed a Journal Club tied to a validated EBM metric.
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Mark F. Olaf, DO, FACEP
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Mark F Olaf, DO, FACEP is Vice Chair of Education for Emergency Medicine and an Associate Regional Dean for the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine (GCSOM) where he is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine. He is an Emergency Physician at Geisinger Health System in Danville, PA.
A Diplomate of the American Board of Emergency Medicine, and a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians (FACEP), Dr. Olaf is also a distinguished fellow of the ACEP Teaching Fellowship. Dr. Olaf is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He completed emergency medicine residency training at the Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pennsylvania, where he served as Chief Resident.
Dr. Olaf has demonstrated expertise in advising and mentoring emergency medicine bound students. He has published and collaborated with colleagues from across the country to further knowledge and share information related to emergency medicine education and advising in medical school. Dr. Olaf has lectured extensively within his institution and in multiple venues across the United States. He has been awarded multiple institutional awards for mentoring and advising students. His ongoing academic and education research interests include evidence-based advising, medical student transitions to residency, and curriculum development for emergency medicine education. -
Brian Milman, MD
University of Texas Southwestern
Dr. Brian Milman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas. He completed his emergency medicine residency at University of Oklahoma and worked as faculty, Assistant Program Director, then Associate Program Director in Tulsa before moving to Dallas in 2023. Dr. Milman is passionate about teaching, advising, and mentoring.
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Katherine D. Mayes, MD, PhD
Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
Katherine Dickerson Mayes, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor and Core Faculty of Emergency Medicine at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. She attended medical school at Stanford University prior to completing her residency at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency program at Mass General Brigham, where she served as chief resident. Her research interests include both the treatment of neurologic emergencies and social determinants of health.
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Martin P. Wegman , MD, PhD, FACEP
Research Director
HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital
Martin Wegman, MD, PhD is a practicing emergency physician, population-health scientist, and research director at HCA FL Orange Park Hospital. He is also the inaugural Senior Research Fellow at the American College of Emergency Physicians where he provides strategic direction for the College's research portfolio, including the annual research conference, research training course and research networks. In these roles, he serves as principal investigator on multiple funded projects.
He completed his MD-PhD training program at the University of Florida, with graduate work in epidemiology and healthcare policy. He then completed a post-graduate clinical research fellowship at Yale School of Medicine and his emergency medicine residency training at Yale and the University of North Carolina. He has been published in Lancet Global Health, JAMA, Health Affairs, and Medical Care, and funded by the NIH, FDA, Doris Duke Foundation, and the AMA - with awards totaling in excess of $1M. He has expertise in research methodology, including quasi-experimental design and experience in analyzing large healthcare datasets to inform healthcare practice and policy. -
Kevin J. Mercer, PharmD, MPH
The University of Texas at Austin
Kevin Mercer, PharmD, MPH is an Assistant Professor of Practice at the The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy. He earned a Doctor of Pharmacy and Master of Public Health from the University of Kentucky followed by completing pharmacy residency training at The University of Chicago Medicine. Dr. Mercer is passionate about teaching and mentoring trainees in emergency medicine. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling and cultivating house plants.
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Kevin McGurk, MD
Assistant Professor
Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals
Dr. McGurk is an assistant professor in the emergency medicine department at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Prior to pursuing medicine, he worked as an elementary school teacher in the D.C. public school system. He received his medical degree from the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and completed his residency at Cook County Health, where he also served as chief resident. Dr. McGurk's professional interests include medical education, retrospective research, and medical humanities. He is the M3 EM clerkship director and the 2023 recipient of the Joseph C. Carin Excellence in Teaching Award. -
James Paxton, MD, MBA
Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Research
Wayne State University School of Medicine
James H. Paxton, MD MBA FACEP FAHA, is the Director of Clinical Research for Detroit Receiving Hospital and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Wayne State University Department of Emergency Medicine. He has served SAEM through various roles within the By-Laws, Awards, Grants, and Research Committees, including Chairman of the SAEM Research Committee (2021-2024). He received both his MD and MBA degrees from the University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH), and completed EM residency training at Henry Ford Hospital (Detroit, MI). Dr. Paxton has served as core academic faculty for the Detroit EM residencies at both Sinai-Grace Hospital and Detroit Receiving Hospital since 2011, and has mentored hundreds of medical students and residents at Wayne State University during that time. He is an active clinical researcher and has served as PI for numerous industry- and publicly funded trials. He is the editor of several books on emergency medicine topics, and is a recognized expert and invited speaker for many regional, national and international lectures on emergent vascular access, cardiac arrest, and emergent resuscitation.
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Steven M. Hochman, MD
Dept of Emergency Medicine, St Joseph’s Health
Core Faculty for the past 20 years, Research Director and lead faculty for Journal Club for the past 10 years.