ASRM Bulletin – April 2, 2013
Volume 15, Number 13
American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s Journal Fertility and Sterility Participates in World’s First International Live Online Cyber Journal Club™ Platform
For the first time, using the latest in video technology, ASRM participated in a live online transcontinental Journal Club for practicing physicians, academics and students. The Journal Club Live™ platform featured a ten-way discussion of fellows and professors from the USA, Europe, and India well as the article’s author. The sessions are archived at fertstertforum.com/journalclubmarch2013 and fertstertforum.com/journalclubfeb2013
Says the project’s creator, Dr. Steven Palter, New Media Editor of Fertility and Sterility and Medical and Scientific Director of Gold Coast IVF, “An online real time live journal club has never taken place before. We are very excited about this new digital expansion of what has been a mainstay of medical research and education, now taken into the 21st century as a powerful new teaching tool for physicians and patients.”
The entire event was live-streamed on YouTube using technology from Google with custom modifications from the Journal Club Live™ platform and was open to comments and questions and free participation from anyone around the world. “Free open video group chat is a mainstay of gamers worldwide. This technology now transforms medical education,” says Palter.
Since the 1800’s Journal Clubs, or closed research critique sessions, have been a mainstay of medical research and education. With the launch of the OnlineCyber Journal Club™ platform, the conversation among academics, patients and students can be shared worldwide and disseminated in real time.
“The reader of the journal can now become part of an ongoing, dynamic, live discussion that enhances the value of the original research,” says Dr. Palter. “With this effort, we have bridged the gap separating the digital and traditional medical literature and embraced the global technological future of medicine. This integration will lead to exciting new directions in research.”
“This was a terrific way to share results and to discuss an article. I learned a lot more by actually being able to interact with people from different places and the author and moderators than I would have just sitting in a cold room even though my colleagues are wonderful,” said Dr. Kurt Barnhart, William Shippen, Jr. Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania, Associate Editor of Fertility and Sterility, and a participant in the event.
The author of the study discussed at the online Journal Club participated in the event as well. “It was great. Sometimes when you have your article critiqued…you learn something about your research that you had not thought about before,” said Dr. Elizabeth Ginsberg, Medical Director, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School.
