An interventional study of Spaced educational intervention in Behavior, sponsored by Jewish General Hospital. Completed at 1 site in Canada. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2021-02-12.
Sponsored by Jewish General Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other
Spaced education is a promising theory-driven strategy to improve clinical competence. Our aim is to improve the clinical competence of Family Physicians, an outcome associated with the quality of care delivered to Canadians.
Research Question: Among family medicine residents, does enhanced feedback through an app providing alerts and test questions (spaced education), compared to the same app without alerts and enhanced feedback (no spaced education), improve competence as measured by the certification examination? In building this proposal for a definitive trial, the investigators have support from coast to coast. In addition to key clinician educators, the team includes knowledge users from the organization responsible for the certification examination in Family Medicine, methodologists and experienced researchers who study how mobile apps can promote engagement with clinical information. The team has the right blend of expertise in medical education and cluster randomized trials.
Approach and Methods: The investigators will follow an organizational participatory research approach, and propose a cluster randomized controlled trial. Setting: All incoming family medicine residents in Canada will be eligible to participate. Intervention site residents will receive alerts through an app to adaptively reinforce the learning of clinical content based on cases and test questions (spaced education). Residents in the control group will receive the same app providing identical clinical cases and test questions-on-demand, but with alerts inactivated (no spaced education). The primary outcome will be scores on the certification examination. This routinely collected data will be provided to the team by the College of Family Physicians of Canada.
Expected Results and Conclusion: Spaced education will improve examination scores. This will inform educational practice by providing evidence to optimize the training of residents.
1,573 studies on the registry are indexed under Behavior; 313 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 634 is above the median of 120 across 1,197 interventional studies indexed under Behavior.
Browse Behavior studies →Jewish General Hospital is the lead sponsor of 97 studies on the registry; 11 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Intervention site residents will receive alerts through an app to adaptively reinforce the learning of clinical content based on cases and test questions (spaced education).
Behavioral: Spaced educational intervention
Residents in the control group will receive the same app providing identical clinical cases and test questions-on-demand, but with alerts inactivated (no spaced education).
A spaced educational intervention will be provided to participants
Scores on the Certification Examination
This is the score on the written component of the examination of the College of Family Physicians of Canada. This refers to the grade/score given to participants on the Short Answer Management Problems (SAMP) section of the exam ranging from 0 to 100. Higher values represent a better outcome. The score minimum observed was 53.9 and max is 84.4 for this study.
Time frame: 2 years
| Milestone | Intervention | Control |
|---|---|---|
| Started | 335 | 299 |
| Completed | 281 | 241 |
| Not completed | 54 | 58 |
| Withdrew: Never signed in to access the app | 54 | 58 |
This is the score on the written component of the examination of the College of Family Physicians of Canada. This refers to the grade/score given to participants on the Short Answer Management Problems (SAMP) section of the exam ranging from 0 to 100. Higher values represent a better outcome. The score minimum observed was 53.9 and max is 84.4 for this study.
| scores on a scale | Intervention | Control |
|---|---|---|
| Scores on the Certification Examination | 73.9 ± 4.4 | 73.1 ± 5.1 |
Collected over Adverse Events were not monitored/assessed.. Non-serious events are listed at a 0% frequency threshold.
| Group | Deaths | Serious | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intervention | — | — | — |
| Control | — | — | — |
| Age, Categorical(Participants) | Intervention | Control | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| <=18 years | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Between 18 and 65 years | 335 | 299 | 634 |
| >=65 years | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sex: Female, Male(Participants) | Intervention | Control | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disclosed gender (included 6 undisclosed in male intervention count) — Female | 229 | 210 | 439 |
| Disclosed gender (included 6 undisclosed in male intervention count) — Male | 106 | 89 | 195 |
| Ethnicity (NIH/OMB)(Participants) | Intervention | Control | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hispanic or Latino | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Not Hispanic or Latino | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown or Not Reported | 335 | 299 | 634 |
| Region of Enrollment(participants) | Intervention | Control | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | 335 | 299 | 634 |
| Smart phone(Participants) | Intervention | Control | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Count of participants | 234 | 213 | 447 |
| International Medical Graduate(Participants) | Intervention | Control | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Count of participants | 40 | 57 | 97 |
| Graduate degree(Participants) | Intervention | Control | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Count of participants | 80 | 66 | 146 |
PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.
Ran from Oct 2017 to primary completion in May 2019, 19 months.
Results were first posted in Feb 2021, 1 year 8 months after primary completion.
Of 741 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Behavior, half reached primary completion within 14 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 5 and three quarters within 32. This study's 19 months is above that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 757 studies reached it within 13 months; a quarter within 5 and three quarters within 32.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is completed, as verified in Jan 2021. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Jewish General Hospital