Text4Peds: Short Message Service Evaluating Medical Student Education

SMS Clinical Trial

Official title:

Text4Peds: Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating Medical Student Education

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03346616
• Other study ID #: 26458
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: October 30, 2017
• Last updated: November 14, 2017
• Start date: May 2, 2016
• Est. completion date: April 28, 2017

Study information

• Verified date: November 2017
• Source: St. Louis University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

In this study, third year medical students on the pediatric clerkship will be randomized to receive either only written educational material (review journal articles) or written educational material plus daily text messages consisting of board style questions with online answers. The students' performance on the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Pediatric Subject Evaluation will be compared between the two groups.

Description:

In the last decade, the use of smartphone and text messaging (SMS) has increased significantly; during this time, text messaging has become the primary means of communication in some instances. Despite the popularity, text messaging and smartphones have been rarely utilized in the context of medical education. Few studies have been performed examining the effect of text messaging as an adjunct to traditional medical education. A previous study with the Saint Louis University (SLU) Pediatric Residency program, showed the feasibility of using text messaging to deliver medical information to pediatric residents through the Text4Peds program.

This study aims to expand Text4Peds to third NBME Pediatric Subject Evaluation performance. The NBME Pediatric Subject Evaluation is a national, standardized pediatric knowledge based exam from the NBME taken by all medical students at the end of their pediatric clerkship.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 162
• Est. completion date: April 28, 2017
• Est. primary completion date: April 28, 2017
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 20 Years to 50 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Third year medical students on the Pediatric Clerkship at Saint Louis University School of Medicine

Exclusion Criteria:

• Third year medical students who did not have a mobile phone capable of receiving a short message service (SMS) text message

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Education, Medical, Undergraduate
• SMS

Intervention

Other:
• Texting Group
See above in arm/group description
• Non Texting Group
See above in arm/group description

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	St Louis University	Saint Louis	Missouri

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
St. Louis University

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (11)

Broom MA, Adamson GT, Draper LR. Text messaging in medical education. Pediatrics. 2014 Mar;133(3):e491-3. doi: 10.1542/peds.2013-1529. Epub 2014 Feb 17. Review. — View Citation

Chen Y, Yang K, Jing T, Tian J, Shen X, Xie C, Ma B, Liu Y, Yao L, Cao X. Use of text messages to communicate clinical recommendations to health workers in rural China: a cluster-randomized trial. Bull World Health Organ. 2014 Jul 1;92(7):474-81. doi: 10.2471/BLT.13.127076. Epub 2014 Mar 25. — View Citation

Draper L, Kuklinski C, Ladley A, Adamson G, Broom M. Texting preferences in a Paediatric residency. Clin Teach. 2017 Dec;14(6):401-406. doi: 10.1111/tct.12590. Epub 2017 Jan 12. — View Citation

Gavali MY, Khismatrao DS, Gavali YV, Patil KB. Smartphone, the New Learning Aid amongst Medical Students. J Clin Diagn Res. 2017 May;11(5):JC05-JC08. doi: 10.7860/JCDR/2017/20948.9826. Epub 2017 May 1. — View Citation

Gill CJ, Le Ngoc B, Halim N, Nguyen Viet H, Larson Williams A, Nguyen Van T, McNabb M, Tran Thi Ngoc L, Falconer A, An Phan Ha H, Rohr J, Hoang H, Michiel J, Nguyen Thi Thanh T, Bird L, Pham Vu H, Yeshitla M, Ha Van N, Sabin L. The mCME Project: A Randomized Controlled Trial of an SMS-Based Continuing Medical Education Intervention for Improving Medical Knowledge among Vietnamese Community Based Physicians' Assistants. PLoS One. 2016 Nov 18;11(11):e0166293. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0166293. eCollection 2016. — View Citation

Goodarzi M, Ebrahimzadeh I, Rabi A, Saedipoor B, Jafarabadi MA. Impact of distance education via mobile phone text messaging on knowledge, attitude, practice and self efficacy of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Iran. J Diabetes Metab Disord. 2012 Aug 31;11(1):10. doi: 10.1186/2251-6581-11-10. — View Citation

Gurol-Urganci I, de Jongh T, Vodopivec-Jamsek V, Atun R, Car J. Mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2013 Dec 5;(12):CD007458. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD007458.pub3. Review. — View Citation

Hall AK, Cole-Lewis H, Bernhardt JM. Mobile text messaging for health: a systematic review of reviews. Annu Rev Public Health. 2015 Mar 18;36:393-415. doi: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031914-122855. Review. — View Citation

Mount HR, Zakrajsek T, Huffman M, Deffenbacher B, Gallagher K, Skinker B, Rivard G, Benson S, Dancel R, Buckman F, Hayes M, Jackson J, Viera AJ. Text messaging to improve resident knowledge: a randomized controlled trial. Fam Med. 2015 Jan;47(1):37-42. — View Citation

Sabin LL, Larson Williams A, Le BN, Herman AR, Viet Nguyen H, Albanese RR, Xiong W, Shobiye HO, Halim N, Tran LTN, McNabb M, Hoang H, Falconer A, Nguyen TTT, Gill CJ. Benefits and Limitations of Text Messages to Stimulate Higher Learning Among Community Providers: Participants' Views of an mHealth Intervention to Support Continuing Medical Education in Vietnam. Glob Health Sci Pract. 2017 Jun 27;5(2):261-273. doi: 10.9745/GHSP-D-16-00348. Print 2017 Jun 27. — View Citation

Stockwell MS, Kharbanda EO, Martinez RA, Lara M, Vawdrey D, Natarajan K, Rickert VI. Text4Health: impact of text message reminder-recalls for pediatric and adolescent immunizations. Am J Public Health. 2012 Feb;102(2):e15-21. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300331. Epub 2011 Dec 15. — View Citation

* Note: There are 11 references in all — Click here to view all references

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	National Board of Medical Examiners Pediatric Subject Examination	The NBME pediatrics subject examination is used to assess medical student knowledge and is a common component of the pediatric clerkship grade. It is also used to compare medical student performance to a national benchmark. NBME scores are on a scale of 0-100 (% correct); mean score for this exam during year of evaluation was 75.7 (SD 8.7).	Assessed at end of intervention (after 8 weeks)