What is theMednet/JCO Journal Club?
theMednet.org is the premier online community for over 10,000 oncologists in the United States. Through an interactive Q&A formate, it connects experts at top academic centers with community oncologists and fills in knowledge gaps that conventional medical textbooks and guidelines can’t cover on their own.
Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), published by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), is an authoritative source for the latest research in clinical oncology. With a readership of more than 45,000 members and more than 7,500 institutional subscribers, JCO is read by practicing clinical oncologists, researchers, and health professionals worldwide. It's audience includes medical professionals from all oncology disciplines and subspecialties, including medical, surgical, pediatric, gynecologic, urologic oncology, therapeutic radiology, and hematology.
In May 2018, theMednet partnered with ASCO to create a new online journal club for JCO!
Why the Journal Club Matters
Journal clubs are a standard part of many residency and fellowship training programs. They allow trainees to actively engage with expert faculty, learn how to interpret new research publications, and apply findings to clinical practice. After graduation, many physicians miss the opportunity to share and interpret published research with their peers and attending physicians. In an effort to revitalize this engagement, we provide every physician on theMednet an opportunity to get involved with the JCO journal club, which focuses on high impact research published in JCO. “I welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with theMednet journal club, because it represented an opportunity to spread the word about practice-changing JCO articles to a broader audience” says Dr. Stephen Cannistra, Editor-in-Chief of JCO.
How the Journal Club Works
Every month, JCO editors choose high impact research papers connected to an Oncology Grand Rounds (OGR) article. OGRs provide a case-based description of patient management and integrate findings of an original report. The authors of the OGR are invited to participate in the journal club on theMednet. Physicians around the country post their most pressing questions on the article to theMednet editors, and the top three are presented to the author of the research paper. What follows is an engaging conversation with the newest research at the heart of dialogue!
“theMednet pilot made sense for JCO because of its focus on oncology, growing user base, and demonstrated level of high quality clinician engagement, all of which have grown significantly since 2017. I am pleased to see the important research published in JCO being discussed and applied by the journal’s target readership and hopefully making a positive impact on the care of patients with cancer.” - David Sampson, Vice President and Publisher, Publishing at ASCO.
The JCO Journal Club allows clinicians all over the country to connect with international authors whose research is changing clinical practice. At the same time, researchers immediately get a pulse on the community's reactions and interpretations of their investigations. According to Dr. Vinai Gondi, Principal Investigator of the practice-changing NRG CC001 phase III randomized trial soon to be published in JCO and featured in theMednet journal club, "theMednet provides a reliable mechanism for investigators to broadcast the findings of their published research. Through theMednet journal club, authors can address nuance with greater depth and breadth, answer questions from theMednet's highly engaged user base, and help ensure the accuracy of our community's interpretation of the study's findings."