TY - JOUR AU - Malecki, Sarah L AU - Quinn, Kieran L AU - Zilbert, Nathan AU - Razak, Fahad AU - Ginsburg, Shiphra AU - Verma, Amol A AU - Melvin, Lindsay PY - 2019 DA - 2019/09/19 TI - Understanding the Use and Perceived Impact of a Medical Podcast: Qualitative Study JO - JMIR Med Educ SP - e12901 VL - 5 IS - 2 KW - podcasts KW - grounded theory KW - medical education AB - Background: Although podcasts are increasingly being produced for medical education, their use and perceived impact in informal educational settings are understudied. Objective: This study aimed to explore how and why physicians and medical learners listen to The Rounds Table (TRT), a medical podcast, as well as to determine the podcast’s perceived impact on learning and practice. Methods: Web-based podcast analytics were used to collect TRT usage statistics. A total of 17 medical TRT listeners were then identified and interviewed through purposive and convenience sampling, using a semistructured guide and a thematic analysis, until theoretical sufficiency was achieved. Results: The following four themes related to podcast listenership were identified: (1) participants thought that TRT increased efficiency, allowing them to multitask, predominantly using mobile listening platforms; (2) participants listened to the podcast for both education and entertainment, or “edutainment”; (3) participants thought that the podcast helped them keep up to date with medical literature; and (4) participants considered TRT to have an indirect effect on learning and clinical practice by increasing overall knowledge. Conclusions: Our results highlight how a medical podcast, designed for continuing professional development, is often used informally to promote learning. These findings enhance our understanding of how and why listeners engage with a medical podcast, which may be used to inform the development and evaluation of other podcasts. SN - 2369-3762 UR - http://mededu.jmir.org/2019/2/e12901/ UR - https://doi.org/10.2196/12901 UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31538949 DO - 10.2196/12901 ID - info:doi/10.2196/12901 ER -