NeurAnki: Behind The Scenes of Creating the First-Ever Flashcard Based Deck for Resident Education
Rohit Marawar1, Casey Albin2, Deanna Saylor3, Michael Stanley4, A. Blake Buletko5, Alison Christy6, Nina Riggins7, Joshua Budhu8, Elizabeth Coon9, Micah Etter10, Matthew Roberts11, Aileen Antonio12, Zain Guduru13, Michael Kentris14, Esteban Cheng-Ching15
1Wayne State University - Detroit Medical Center, 2Emory Healthcare, 3Johns Hopkins Hospital, 4Tufts Medical Center, 5Cleveland Clinic, 6Providence Pediatric Neurology, 7Headache Center of Excellence, 8Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 9Mayo Clinic, 10University of Arizona Neurology, 11University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, 12Trinity Health Saint Mary's Hauenstein Neurosciences, 13University of Kentucky, 14St. Elizabeth Hospital, 15Miami Valley Hospital
Objective:
To describe the process of creating the first-ever comprehensive flashcard-based Anki deck for Neurology Resident Education.
Background:
Spaced-Repetition and Active-Recall, core principles of Anki, are proven methods for enhancing memory and learning in medical education, with evidence linking Anki use to higher USMLE scores. Premade Anki decks have been successfully adapted for specialties like dermatology and anesthesiology. We developed NeurAnki, a free flashcard-deck for neurology residents, specifically for RITE and Board exams.
Design/Methods:
We circulated a 13-question Google form on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn) to gauge anki usage perceptions as well as recruit contributors for deck creation. We ensured quality and content validity by assembling volunteer teams under subspecialty section-heads and Board-Certified Neurologists as faculty guides. Primary resource included “Comprehensive Review in Clinical Neurology 2nd Edition”, and copyright infringement was avoided by paraphrasing information, images cited from open-access websites “Radiopedia.com”, "NCBI", open-access journals. "Slack" functioned as the virtual workspace to facilitate communication between volunteers, section-heads and faculty guides. Flashcards created by volunteers were screened by section-heads and reviewed by faculty guides before being finalized.
Results:
564 participants from 59 countries submitted responses to the google form from 10/2023-03/2024. Finally, 115 contributors from 28 countries were divided into 13 subspecialty teams for flashcard creation. Majority contributors were from USA(87), India(85), Saudi Arabia(23), vs interested users were from USA(126), India(20), Pakistan(12). 422/564 participants ranked their interest ≥4 (scale 1-5), signifying a strong likelihood of using Anki, while 487/564 believed Anki could be useful in improving RITE scores. NeurAnki comprises 5,185 flashcards across 13 subspecialty sub-decks being officially released on 08/24/2024 with over 2241 downloads till date. The deck was uploaded to "AnkiHub" on 09/14/24, an online platform for educational decks updated continually by moderators in real time.
Conclusions:
NeurAnki can serve as a supplemental digital educational resource for Neurology Trainees for NRITE/Board exam preparation.
Disclaimer: Abstracts were not reviewed by Neurology® and do not reflect the views of Neurology® editors or staff.