P0729 - Effectiveness of a digital texting platform to foster engagement and learning in Trainees and Early Career Neonatologists (TECaN)

Background: Digital texting platforms, an important facet of electronic learning, foster engagement and collaboration between learners separated geographically, reaching a broad audience at low cost. Single-center studies demonstrate the success of texting platforms for medical education, but data supporting the use of this interface on a national scale are scarce.

Objective: (1) Explore the use of a digital texting platform to build topic-based interest groups within the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) TECaN. (2) Create a collaborative learning environment for TECaN members nationally, with a focus on preparation for the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine subspecialty board exam.

Design/

Methods: WhatsApp,inc. is a free texting platform chosen to allow for interactive communication between members with easy, voluntary addition of new members via a shared link. Initial interest groups formed in July 2019 included Neonatology Board Review, Quality Improvement and Research, Global Health, and Career Development. Within all groups, the number of members and unique commenters were tracked weekly. The Board Review group incorporated a structured topic-based review involving member-generated daily quizzes. The number of questions per week and the associated responses were tracked. For all groups, chat history was exported and descriptive variables were delimited using Microsoft Excel and analyzed using a Pivot Table. A follow-up survey assessing user perception of the WhatsApp groups as a learning tool was disseminate in February, 2020 via the texting platform.

Results: User participation increased over 6 months across all groups (Figure 1). The Board Review group showed the most rapid growth, reaching a maximum capacity of 257 participants by November, 2019. Within this group, an average of 11 questions were sent out each week, with a steadily increasing number of members answering disseminated questions (Figure 2). The follow-up survey was completed by 99 members (response rate 38%), with 86% of members reporting being “extremely or somewhat satisfied” with the texting groups. Specific to the board review group, 92% strongly or somewhat agreed with the structured WhatsApp groups increasing their understanding of core NICU topics, 88% feeling better prepared for the 2020 certifying exam, and 72% with better maintaining a study schedule. The real-time discussion surrounding neonatology board review topics, the ability to share educational resources, and the opportunity to discuss and compare clinical practices between institutions were other key findings.

Conclusion: Using an interactive texting interface led to progressively increased engagement from AAP TECaN members and served to link fellows and early career neonatologists across the US in a virtual peer learning community. A peer-run focused board review curriculum, with daily quizzes and interactive discussion, was well received by learners. Future directions include assessment on overall engagement in other TECaN or AAP initiatives, as well as opportunities for expansion of this platform as a clinical collaboration tool.