Performance Metric Analysis of a Radiation Oncology Educational Podcast

• Published in: International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics Vol. 117; no. 2; p. e555
• Main Authors: Wu, T.C., No, H.J., Rahimy, E., Raldow, A., Beadle, B.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.10.2023
• ISSN: 0360-3016; 1879-355X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2023.06.1866

Asynchronous podcast education is a popular supplementary tool with up to 88% of medical residents reporting its use, and is perceived by faculty to have high educational value with convenience and connection to broader medical communities.1,2 Radiation oncology (RO) podcasts remain scarce compared to other specialties, and ones focused exclusively on education are largely absent. We analyze the early performance, listenership, and engagement of the first RO medical education podcast. Episode data and listener demographics were gathered from Spotify and iTunes. Episode engagement was defined as a percentage of plays on unique devices playing >40% of an episode within a single session. Listenership was defined by the number of plays per day (ppd) on unique devices, averaged over 60 days from publication date. Episodes were case based, categorized by disease subsite, and reviewed by a board-certified radiation oncologist. Quantitative endpoints included episode engagement and listenership. Qualitative comments were not solicited but received through email and Twitter. Pearson's correlation coefficient calculations were used for analysis. Eighteen total episodes had 8,517 total plays since July 2022 over 176 days. Median episode length was 13.8 minutes (range 9.2-20.1). Popular listening platforms included iTunes (53.5%) and Spotify (34.0%). Listener demographics included 59.4% male, 39.6% female, and 1.0% other, ranging from age 23-27 (14%), 28-34 (65%), 35-44 (14%), 45-59 (4%), and 60+ (1%). ATB was played in 48 countries, with the most listeners in North America (74.6%) followed by Asia (7.8%), Europe (7.6%), Australia (7.0%), Africa (2.0%), and South America (0.4%). There was a 464% increase in listenership since publication with median growth of 63.3% per month. Median listenership and engagement were 9.2 ppd (IQR, 7.7-9.9) and 77.8% (IQR, 68.1-81.2) for all episodes, respectively. Among 8 topics, head and neck (HN) episodes had the highest mean listenership with 17.8 ppd, followed by genitourinary (GU, 10.8) and lung (10.5). GU episodes had the highest mean engagement at 84.6%, followed by lung (82.3) and sarcoma (81.2). Dosimetry had the lowest listenership and engagement at 5.9 ppd and 63.1%, respectively. A significant negative relationship between episode length and engagement was observed, (r(18) = -0.469, p = 0.05). There was no statistically significant relationship between ppd and episode length, (r(18) = -0.303, p = 0.22). Evidenced by its significant rise in listenership, high listener engagement, and large international audience, there were previously unmet needs for RO medical education that may be supplemented by podcasts. HN episodes were most popular with GU exhibiting highest engagement. Longer episode length correlated with a significant decrease in engagement but no effect on popularity.