SCHOOL OF SURGERY: RESULTS FROM THE LAUNCH OF AN OPEN ACCESS SURGICAL EDUCATION PLATFORM

Introduction:
Rapid technological innovations have led to a growing demand for online and portable learning resources. There is a paucity of quality surgical resources available for both undergraduates and surgeons in training. We have developed a series of audio and visual podcasts available free via Podomatic®, iTunes® and Facebook® based on a combination of undergraduate and ISCP learning objectives. We report a summary of the uptake following the first six months since launch.

Method:
Podcasts were made with subject matter mapped to curricular outcomes on the Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme (www.iscp.ac.uk). Following previous work done by or group, audio podcasts were recorded as dialogue between interviewer and expert and all podcasts were around 10 minutes long as an optimal time for download speed and user acceptability. Podcasts were released weekly on Saturday afternoon (time of maximum Facebook engagements) since launch in June 2014. Podcasts were hosted on Podomatic® (www.podomatic.com), syndicated via iTunes® and new releases announced via Facebook® (www.facebook.com/surgeryschool). Usage data was collected from statistics provided by Facebook and Podomatic.

Results:
Forty one podcasts have been released at an average of 1.2 per week. Eighteen (44%) were supplemented with video or slides. The median duration of podcasts was 10.28 minutes (range 2.51-19.11 minutes). Twenty four clinicians contributed to the podcasts. Twenty seven (66%) were dialogue and 31/41 of contributors (76%) involved were consultants. Eight broad topics were covered with colorectal surgery the specialty most frequently covered (15).

To date, there have been 7200 downloads across 27 countries. There was an 11-fold increase in monthly downloads since launching, with current monthly download figures standing at 2000. UK downloads account for 46% of total downloads, followed by the US (20%), Australia (8%) and Canada (5%). The peak download time is 6pm GMT with >50% of all downloads occurring between the hours 6pm-12pm. There were 4150 online plays via the Podomatic host. 49% of users are male with 48% being in the 18-24 age group.

Discussion:
Open access surgical education using audio-visual media is a feasible and popular resource. Online platforms and social media spaces can be used to both host and promote these resources. Utilising social media can increase exposure on a global level and also generate meaningful data about target audiences and their online learning habits.