Podcast-Based Medical Education and Content Alignment with National Education Bodies

Despite the rapid expansion of medical education podcasts in the past decade, there are few efforts to characterize the landscape of available content for specific medical specialties. We trialed a method of rigorous characterization for the field of neurology.

Using a censoring date of July 25, 2022, we queried the top three podcast platforms for neurology education podcasts: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. We characterized podcasts based on total number of episodes, episode release frequency, target audience, and affiliation type. We characterized individual episodes by length and primary content area as defined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN). We compared content availability with content recommendations from these education bodies.

We identified 30 podcasts sharing 1772 episodes and totaling 46,287 min. The ACGME subspecialties most frequently covered were vascular neurology (5082 total min, 11%), neuroimmunology (4,406, 10%), and neuromuscular diseases (3,771, 8%). Subjects that were underrepresented included palliative neurology (89 min, 0.2%), neuropathology (95 min, 0.2%), and bioethics (171 min, 0.4%). The coverage of ABPN examination topics varied substantially from the content distribution for the examination.

The current landscape of neurology education podcasts features heterogeneous coverage of topics and varies considerably from recommended distribution of content by national education bodies. As podcasts have tremendous potential in supplementing neurology education, characterizing available content may help various stakeholders in the neurology education pipeline optimize the use of this e-learning modality.