S. S. Ayub1, C. D. Downard2, A. B. Goldin3, D. M. Powell4, S. Islam1, J. A. Taylor1 1University Of Florida,Pediatric Surgery,Gainesville, FL, USA 2University Of Louisville,Pediatric Surgery,Louisville, KY, USA 3Seattle Children’s Hospital,Pediatric Surgery,Seattle, WA, USA 4Stanford University,Pediatric Surgery,Palo Alto, CA, USA
Introduction: The American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA) Committee on Literature Reviews forwards monthly email blasts to its members that include links to peer-reviewed publications. This member benefit has been anecdotally lauded but the access data not critically reviewed. We sought to determine the rate of article access and what subjects attracted the most attention.
Methods: Email opening rate and link click-through rate was analyzed for APSA literature review email blasts sent from May 2012 – October 2016. Individual articles’ access was analyzed based on subject grouping and total access frequency. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA and two-sample t-test (p<0.05).
Results: 137 articles were distributed. There was a 53% email opening rate and 40% article access rate, compared to 43% overall opening rate for any APSA emails and 22% overall click-through rate. By subject, the top four were critical care (62 articles), appendicitis (16), care access (11), and genito-urinary (6). There was no statistical significance in access frequency when comparing the four groups. Comparing critical care and appendicitis, access to the appendicitis articles was significantly greater (average number clicks: 240+78.9 vs 191+75.4, p<0.035). 65 articles were accessed at least 200 times. The most frequently accessed paper was in critical care (470 times), the least frequently accessed paper was also in critical care (47 times).
Conclusion: APSA members access literature reviews more than other emails sent by APSA; access rates also surpass the 2016 industry standard. While there was a skewing of topics presented, articles focusing on appendicitis continued to be of interest to pediatric surgeons based on the number of times the links were accessed. This shows that the email blasts are a well-utilized member benefit. Future attention of the emails may re-direct focus based on subject matter distribution and frequency of access seen thus far.