SAEM systematic online academic resource (SOAR) review: Gastrointestinal illnesses

Background and Objectives

Free open access medical education (FOAM) has become an essential tool for emergency medicine (EM) education and can be valuable to clinicians as a point-of-care resource. The development of the revised Medical Education Translational Resources Impact and Quality (rMETRIQ) tool provides a standardized means of quality assessment. Previous entries of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine systematic online academic resource (SOAR) series have focused on renal, endocrine, and sickle cell disorders. In this iteration, we strive to identify, curate, and describe FOAM topics specific to acute gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses.

Methods

We searched 389 keywords across 11 GI topics that were modified from the 2019 Model of the Clinical Practice of EM (EM Model) using the search engine Google FOAM and within the top 50 websites listed on Academic Life in Emergency Medicine's Social Media Index. The sites underwent preliminary screening to eliminate resources that were not relevant to EM or GI illnesses. Identified resources were evaluated with the rMETRIQ tool by five board-certified EM physicians who received rMETRIQ tool rater training.

Results

After duplicates of the initial 39,505 resources were eliminated, 8059 remained. Primary screening resulted in a final 1202 resources. The most common categories were large bowel (18%), small bowel (13%), stomach (11%), esophagus (11%), biliary (11%), and liver (10%). Many resources covered multiple topics and subtopics. The final mean intraclass correlation coefficient among the five physicians was 0.95 (95% CI 0.92–0.98) for rMETRIQ scoring. We identified 256 sites considered “high quality” with a rMETRIQ score of 16 or higher as designated in prior reviews.

Conclusions

This iteration of the SOAR review resulted in the highest number of high-quality resources compared to other SOAR reviews, with 21% of resources thus far scoring ≥ 16. A final list of high-quality resources can guide trainees, educator recommendations, and FOAM authors.