Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development (08/10/24) Astaneh, B; Abdullah, R; Guaytt, G; et al.

Medical writing workshops aim to fill the void created by a lack of academic coursework on the topic, but there is little evidence to show whether or not this approach has measurable value. Researchers searched the literature for studies reporting on the impact of such courses globally, ultimately including 45 articles for a systematic review. Upon analysis, they discovered that trainings were held sporadically and classified under different titles — from seminars to educational lectures — with wide variance in the actual curricula. Authors used their own methods for evaluation purposes and were typically incomplete in their execution and/or reporting of the study. Based on before-and-after comparisons of outcome measures such as difference in workshop participants' medical writing/publishing skills and in the number of articles published in peer-reviewed journals, the review authors found "increase in knowledge" to be the only impact identified with some level of consistency. However, even that finding was not statistically significant. The review authors say their results highlight "existing gaps in creating an evidence-based understanding of how to improve the scientific quality of research output for authors" and underscore the need for a standardized assessment tool to evaluate medical writing workshops.

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