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Canadi EM : Accessing a Virtual Community of Practice to Create a Canadian National Medical Education Institution
Author(s) -
Ting Daniel K.,
Thoma Brent,
LuckettGatopoulos S.,
Thomas Adam,
Syed Shahbaz,
Bravo Michael,
Zaver Fareen,
Purdy Eve,
Kwok Edmund S.H.,
Chan Teresa M.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
aem education and training
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.49
H-Index - 9
ISSN - 2472-5390
DOI - 10.1002/aet2.10199
Subject(s) - workforce , public relations , community of practice , medical education , business , knowledge management , world wide web , political science , computer science , medicine , sociology , pedagogy , law
Background The rise of free open‐access medical education ( FOAM ) has led to a wide range of online resources in emergency medicine. Canadian physicians have been active contributors to FOAM . Objectives We aimed to create a virtual community of practice that would serve as a national platform for collaboration, learning, and knowledge dissemination. Methods Canadi EM was formed in 2016 from the merger of two Canadian websites and a podcast. Using a community‐of‐practice model, we introduced two training programs to support junior community members in becoming core editorial team members and employed asynchronous Web technologies to facilitate collaboration. We also introduced a coached peer review process and formed strategic alliances that aim to ensure a high quality of publication. Results Canadi EM has become a portal for readers to access a broad range of FOAM content. The website has published 782 articles. Of these, 71 have undergone a coached peer review process. The website has received over 2.5 million page views from 217 countries, and the associated CRACKC ast podcast has been downloaded over 750,000 times. Conclusions Canadi EM has succeeded in building a national multi‐interface dissemination network that fosters collaboration and knowledge sharing in emergency medicine while fostering junior digital scholars. The construction of a community of practice has been facilitated by quality assurance, training programs, and the use of asynchronous Web technologies. Ongoing challenges in sustainability include a volunteer workforce with high turnover.