An evaluation of the ‘5 Minute Medicine’ video podcast series compared to conventional medical resources for the internal medicine clerkship

Figures & data

Table

Practice points

Video podcasts are welcomed educational tools for undergraduate medical students. The 5MM series is a collection of video podcasts, each of which explains an approach to a key internal medicine objective in approximately 5 minutes. 5MM podcasts are accessible at www.5minutemedicine.com Clinical clerks find them to be effective, appropriate for their level and time-efficient.

Table 1.  Responses to the comparison questions on the survey

	Significantly better	Somewhat better	Similar	Significantly worse/worse
Please compare the videos with teaching from textbooks/online resources used to prepare for a consult (n = 35)	3 (8.6%)	25 (71.4%)	7 (20%)	0
Please compare the videos with teaching from junior and senior residents while on your medicine rotation (n = 35)	12 (34.3%)	12 (34.3%)	10 (28.6%)	1 (2.9%)

Figure 1. Students with 5MM video access were asked ‘Which resource was most useful to you prior to seeing the patient?’.

Table 2.  Students were asked to rate their level of comfort with an approach to the symptom/disease before and after use of the resources

	Very comfortable	Comfortable	Somewhat comfortable	Minimal comfort/ very uncomfortable
Group that used 5MM videos +/− conventional resources (n = 36)
Before	0 (0%)	4 (11.1%)	13 (36.1%)	19 (52.8%)
After	4 (11.1%)	22 (61.1%)	10 (27.8%)	0 (0%)
Group that used conventional resources only (n = 35)
Before	0 (0%)	9 (24.3%)	17 (45.9%)	11 (29.7%)
After	6 (16.7%)	15 (41.7%)	11 (30.6%)	4 (11.1%)

Table 3.  Amount of time required for preparation prior to patient encounters

	Clerks without access to 5 MM videos	Clerks with access to 5 MM videos
N (responses)	37	36
Mean^a (minutes)	19.2	11.1
Median	15	10
SD	11.9	5.7
Range	5–45	5–30

Note: ^atwo-tailed p-value = 0.0004.

Figure 2. Students were asked to respond to the following questions regarding the resources they used. (a) The resource I used was an effective way for me to learn about the symptom/disease. (b) The resource I used was appropriate for my level of training as a clinical clerk in the Canadian medical education system. (c) The resource I used was a time-efficient way for me to learn about the symptom/disease.