JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Note-taking is a method that has long been used to optimize studying. Recent innovations have seen the introduction of digital note-taking using software applications (“apps”), the effectiveness of which has been verified mainly among students; however, the utilization and efficacy of digital note-taking by physicians in actual clinical practice remain unknown.

Objective:

This study investigated the characteristics of Japanese resident physicians using digital note-taking apps and evaluated their effectiveness compared to physicians not using this technology.

Methods:

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in conjunction with the GM-ITE, a clinical competency examination for resident physicians. In addition to basic information on resident physicians, the use of an app for note-taking to record case experience was investigated. A multivariate analysis of the background factors among app users and non-users was conducted. Additionally, the total GM-ITE score was used as the objective variable to evaluate its association with app use.

Results:

The analyses of this study included 3,862 participants; 1,253 (32.4%) were women, 2,000 (51.8%) were postgraduate year 1 residents, 1,211 (31.4%) were training in an urban area, and 3,261 (84.6%) were in community-based hospitals. App users were more likely to be in their second year of residency, work in community-based hospitals, rotate in general medicine, use online medical resources more frequently, and demonstrate longer self-study times. App users had higher score on the GM-ITE than non-app users (47.1±8.3 vs 45.0±8.0, P-value<0.001).

Conclusions:

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate note-taking by physicians using apps. App users may be more motivated and IT literate than non-users. In the future, we would like to conduct more in-depth research on the effectiveness and issues of note-taking using apps based on these results.