Knowledge retention after an online tutorial: a randomized educational experiment among resident physicians.

Background: The time course of physicians' knowledge retention after learning activities has not been well characterized. Understanding the time course of retention is critical to optimizing the reinforcement of knowledge.

Design: Educational follow-up experiment with knowledge retention measured at 1 of 6 randomly assigned time intervals (0-55 days) after an online tutorial covering 2 American Diabetes Association guidelines.

The stadium diagram, a web-based tool for visualizing the expected outcomes of alternative clinical management strategies.

Objective: To explore the use of graphical animation for helping clinicians to understand the evidence about expected risks and benefits associated with multi-step clinical management strategies.

Methods: We used Flash and XML to create a tool capable of displaying the sequence of health state changes that may result from a specific management strategy, as applied to a simulated population. We evaluated this tool in 6 focus groups involving a total of 44 community internists and family physicians.

The roulette wheel: an aid to informed decision making.

The authors outline a new visual tool that can help patients assess the benefits and risks of different treatments.

A test of knowledge about prostate cancer screening. Online pilot evaluation among Southern California Physicians.

Background: Although the benefits of prostate cancer screening are uncertain and guidelines recommend that physicians share the screening decision with their patients, most U.S. men over age 50 are routinely screened, often without counseling.