I would like to commend Black et al.1 for their excellent article regarding their medical education podcast for obstetrics and gynecology. Their Table 1 outlining the existing podcasts made it clear that a Canadian podcast tailored to our health system is much needed. After reading the article, I visited the podcast page. I found the episodes filled a gap relevant to our typical practice guidelines and would be useful for Canadian medical students.
For me, the article raises two questions. First, based on Table 1 there appears to be a lack of sustainability for previously existing podcasts. Several podcasts consistently churned out weekly or monthly episodes, but then came to a halt. Sustainability has been an issue for other medical education podcasts as well.2 Are there methods to preventing podcast “burnout”?
Second, is there a potential to use podcasts for advocacy within medical education? The selected topics are excellent, but perhaps there could be an episode on interventions to prevent learner burnout within obstetrics/gynecology, or methods to prevent heteronormativity within lectures about prenatal care.3,4 I am not sure if this is within the authors’ scope or aims but could be an option, if there is any interest.
All in all, great job and I am looking forward to visiting future episodes.
Conflicts of Interest
None
References
- 1.Black K, Drummond L, Jain V, Sagle M. Development of a medical education podcast in obstetrics and gynecology. Can Med Ed J, 2021. February.1; 10.36834/cmej.71139 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Cho D, Cosimini M, Espinoza J. Podcasting in medical education: a review of the literature. Korean J Med Ed. 2017. December;29(4):229. 10.3946/kjme.2017.69 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 3.Kirubarajan A, Got T, Park B, Li X, Sobel M. Interventions to prevent and treat burnout in obstetrics/gynecology: a scoping review. J Obstet Gynaecol Can. 2020. December 26. 10.1016/j.jogc.2020.12.011 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 4.Röndahl G, Bruhner E, Lindhe J. Heteronormative communication with lesbian families in antenatal care, childbirth and postnatal care. J Adv Nurs. 2009. November;65(11):2337-44. 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2009.05092.x [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]