Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Northwestern University - Feinberg School of Medicine, 676 N. St. Clair St #1350, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Northwestern University - Feinberg School of Medicine, 676 N. St. Clair St #1350, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.
Spine J. 2021 Sep;21(9):1542-1548. doi: 10.1016/j.spinee.2021.04.011. Epub 2021 Apr 23.
The North American Spine Society (NASS) spine fellowship directory is an established resource that provides applicants with access to important information about different fellowship programs. Additionally, some programs have created websites to provide information about their fellowship program. There has been limited research on the amount and breadth of information provided by these different resources.
To assess and compare the scope of information provided by the North American Spine Society (NASS) fellowship directory and individual fellowship program websites.
STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: Web Content Accessibility Study.
There were no patient data used in this study. All reported data were accessed from public websites and the NASS fellowship directory (August 2022 fellowships).
Outcome measures were reported as the presence or lack thereof of 22 topics pertaining to the specifics of each individual spine fellowship program on both the NASS fellowship directory and individual fellowship program websites.
The NASS fellowship directory (August 2022 fellowships) and individual program websites were evaluated by two independent reviewers. Program websites were identified via Google search with a systematic protocol. Within each platform, the availability of various data were recorded. Twenty-four different data points were assessed for each program and were categorized into four main categories-general program information, fellow profiles, clinical roles, and nonclinical roles of the fellow. Chi-squared tests were used to compare differences in the availability of specific data provided by the NASS fellowship directory and individual program websites.
Seventy-four fellowship programs were identified. The NASS fellowship directory was more likely to provide information about the application process, a description of the program, fellow salary, faculty members, case descriptions, and research requirements (p<.05). The program websites were more likely to provide information about current and previous fellows-including a list of current fellow(s), their education/training, and a list of the previous fellows and their job choice (p<.05). Program websites were also more likely to discuss rotation schedules, clinic expectations, research opportunities, journal club, institutional meetings, sponsored national meetings, and current/previous research (p<.05). However, certain information, including specific clinical responsibilities (eg, rotation schedule, call expectations, clinic expectations) and the profiles of current and previous fellows, were not well represented on either platform.
There were significant differences in the type of information provided by the NASS fellowship directory and program websites. Furthermore, there were key pieces of information that were not well represented on either platform.
北美脊柱协会（NASS）脊柱研究员目录是一个成熟的资源，为申请人提供了有关不同研究员计划的重要信息。此外，一些计划已经创建了网站来提供有关其研究员计划的信息。但是，对于这些不同资源提供的信息量和广度的研究有限。
评估和比较北美脊柱协会（NASS）研究员目录和个别研究员计划网站提供的信息范围。
研究设计/设置：网络内容可访问性研究。
本研究未使用患者数据。所有报告的数据均从公共网站和 NASS 研究员目录（2022 年 8 月研究员）中获取。
研究结果以 NASS 研究员目录和个别研究员计划网站上每个单独的脊柱研究员计划的 22 个主题的存在或缺乏为指标。
由两名独立评审员评估 NASS 研究员目录（2022 年 8 月研究员）和个别计划网站。通过系统协议使用 Google 搜索来确定计划网站。在每个平台内，记录了各种数据的可用性。为每个计划评估了 24 个不同的数据点，并将其分为四个主要类别-一般计划信息、研究员简介、临床角色和研究员的非临床角色。使用卡方检验比较 NASS 研究员目录和个别计划网站提供的特定数据的可用性差异。
确定了 74 个研究员计划。NASS 研究员目录更有可能提供有关申请流程、计划描述、研究员薪资、教员、病例描述和研究要求的信息（p<.05）。计划网站更有可能提供有关当前和以前研究员的信息-包括当前研究员（s）的列表、他们的教育/培训以及以前研究员及其工作选择的列表（p<.05）。计划网站也更有可能讨论轮班时间表、诊所期望、研究机会、期刊俱乐部、机构会议、赞助的全国会议以及当前/以前的研究（p<.05）。然而，某些信息，包括特定的临床职责（例如，轮班时间表、呼叫期望、诊所期望）和当前和以前研究员的简介，在两个平台上都没有很好地体现。
NASS 研究员目录和计划网站提供的信息类型存在显著差异。此外，在两个平台上都没有很好地体现某些关键信息。
