How to Keep Up With Medical Literature in the 21st Century
"One of the commonest complaints of practicing physicians is their difficulty in keeping up with medical literature." Nathan Flaxman, MD
Remarkably, this quote was published contemporaneously with the Supreme Court decision to ban racial segregation in public schools the year was 1954, and there were over 800 articles published on cardiovascular topics that year!
Incidentally, the flagship journal of our own organization the Journal of the American College of Cardiology publishes a similar number of articles annually, and this completely ignores other prominent sources and the pantheon of subspecialty literature. Hence, Dr. Flaxman's advice from an earlier era on how to stay current may sound quaint: "Basically, all that is required is the current issue of the Journal [of the American Medical Association], an easy chair, pencils, a pad of paper and postal cards, along with a genuine, sustaining interest in all fields of medicine." He goes on to suggest handing a list of interesting articles to your secretary who will borrow the relevant journals or send for reprints.
Assuming you already possess a "genuine, sustaining interest" in cardiology, you already have a plan to stay abreast of the medical literature. It might be a topic alert e-mail service or perhaps you regularly listen to the podcasts by Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, MACC, while on your way to and from work. Your mail carrier is almost certainly delivering at least one print journal. Regardless, I would encourage you to consider yet another tool social media, particularly Twitter.
Right now I'm sure you're thinking: "I'm too busy."
My response: "Exactly."
In the time you spend in line at the café, you can scan the latest news in cardiology (no more than 140 characters) frequently with hyperlinks to the primary source. Microbursts of data are presented in real time and are immediately disseminated and dissected. It has been more than a decade since its humble inception and Twitter is now ubiquitous in our society. More importantly for cardiologists, Twitter has pivoted from just another social network into an information network. Politicians, industry leaders, and social entrepreneurs recognize its utility and are engaged. However, most physicians have responded with a shrug. Our reluctance stems from over-committed schedules, an assumption that tweets are "pointless babble" and pose reasonable privacy concerns. I, myself, only recently became a convert after attending this year's Legislative Conference (#ACCLegConf).
Why should Early Career cardiologists think about joining Twitter? Twitter allows me to keep a finger on the pulse of cardiology. Here's how: I follow professional organizations including the ACC (@ACCinTouch) reputable journals and respected peers/mentors.