Stroke
InterSECT
Keeping Up With the Medical Literature: Why,
How, and When?
Joseph Kamtchum-Tatuene , MD, MRes; Joseline Guetsop Zafack , MD, PhD
T
o remain competitive throughout their career, clinicians
and researchers must keep abreast of new publica-
tions in their field. This represents a major challenge
due to the exponential growth in the number of publica-
tions powered by the academic publish-or-perish culture
and the ever-growing availability of the internet favoring
the emergence of online-only publications.1–3 For example,
a search on PubMed, which is only one of the many exist-
ing sources of biomedical literature, reveals that >30 000
articles containing the word stroke were indexed in the
platform in 2020, which is 2.3× higher than in 2010 and
5× higher than in 2000. It is obviously impossible to read all
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relevant articles published in a field every year while main-
taining a sound work-life balance. The coronavirus disease
2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created additional pres-
sure to perform a timely curation of new publications in
the context of a rapidly evolving public health emergency.
Here, we share some strategies (Table) to help students
and health professionals to keep up with the medical litera-
ture and fulfill their training or professional requirements
without harming their physical and mental health. The topic
of this article has also been discussed on other platforms,
notably the Nature and Science Magazines.4–8
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO KEEP UP WITH
THE MEDICAL LITERATURE?
Medicine is likely the scientific discipline where knowl-
edge moves at the fastest pace with instant repercus-
sions on clinical care practices and guidelines. Therefore,
one obvious advantage of keeping abreast with the
Key Words: education, medical, continuing ◼ maintenance ◼ publications ◼ social media ◼ work-life balance
The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the editors or of the American Heart Association.
Correspondence to: Joseph Kamtchum-Tatuene, MD, MRes, Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, 4-065
Katz Group Bldg, 114 St & 87 Ave NW, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E1. Email kamtchum@ualberta.ca
The Data Supplement is available with this article at https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/suppl/10.1161/STROKEAHA.121.036141.
For Sources of Funding and Disclosures, see page e748.
© 2021 American Heart Association, Inc.
Stroke is available at www.ahajournals.org/journal/str
e746   November 2021
International Section for Early Career and Training
medical literature is the constant improvement of patient
care and outcomes. Awareness of new developments in
a specialty is also needed to provide adequate answers
to patients’ questions during consultations.
Literature watch also makes it easier to know leaders
in a field, find collaborators or mentors, choose fellowship
destinations, update lecture notes for students, and select
reviewers when submitting manuscripts to journals.
Furthermore, witnessing the expansion of a spe-
cialty and the emergence of new subspecialties helps
to develop professional humility as one acknowledges
that building strong collaborative networks bears more
durable benefits than trying to be a jack of all trades.
USEFUL STRATEGIES TO KEEP UP WITH
THE MEDICAL LITERATURE
Journal Surveillance
One of the most popular means of keeping up with the
medical literature is to consult scholarly journals either
actively by regularly logging onto their website or more
passively by subscribing at no cost to their electronic table
of contents. Through its Journal Watch Series,9 The New
England Journal of Medicine provides an acceptable alter-
native by having experts review the literature in various
fields, select the most important articles, summarize the
findings, and discuss their clinical implications. Of course,
this is limited to clinical medicine, the article selection is
most likely biased by the experts’ preferences and opin-
ions, and some comments are made available online sev-
eral months after the release of the original publications.
Stroke. 2021;52:e746–e748. DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.121.036141
 Kamtchum-Tatuene and Zafack
Table. Strategies to Keep Up With the Medical Literature
Category Available strategies
Journal surveillance Subscription to electronic table of contents
Alerts from PubMed, Google Scholar, and preprint
servers
Audio summaries/podcasts
Interaction with rel- Conferences
evant scientific and
Social media platforms
media communities
(online or in person) Webinars
Newsletters and websites of scientific societies
Websites of public health institutions (eg, World
Health Organization and Center for Disease Control)
Notifications from major news outlets and blogs (eg,
Reuters)
Active membership of scientific societies (eg,
American Heart Association, American Academy of
Neurology, and European Stroke Organization)
Services to journals Manuscript review
Editorial work
Institutional CME Journal clubs
opportunities
Rounds/seminars
Collaboration on review and guideline writing
CME indicates continuing medical education.
With the increased availability of electronic devices
and internet connection, journals have developed other
ways of delivering their content in more digestible for-
mats, notably audio summaries for new issues, author
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interviews, webinars, and podcasts (Data Supplement).
Since February 2021, Stroke Alert podcasts (https://
strokealert.libsyn.com/) provide a monthly audio sum-
mary of key research articles in each issue of the jour-
nal Stroke, as well as in-depth discussions with selected
authors. Podcasts allow clinicians and scientists to com-
plete part of their continuing medical education (CME)
requirements while driving their children to school, cook-
ing, jogging, or traveling between home and workplace.
Alerts from PubMed, Google Scholar, preprint serv-
ers, and major news outlets also represent a convenient
way of keeping an eye on the literature. Regarding pre-
prints, there is an ongoing debate on the potential risks
of using or reporting incorrect research that could be
harmful to patients or society.10 To set up PubMed alerts,
one needs to create an account with the National Centre
for Biotechnology Information. After running a basic or
advanced search, a create an alert link below the PubMed
search box allows users to customize the alert and save
it into their account. Once done, PubMed will search the
literature regularly and send a list of new results directly
by email according to the chosen frequency and format.
Interaction With Scientific and Media
Communities
Interaction with colleagues sharing the same inter-
ests is another valuable way of keeping on top of new
Stroke. 2021;52:e746–e748. DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.121.036141
Keeping Up With the Medical Literature
developments in a specialty or a research field. His-
torically, this has been done in person through con-
ferences. However, over the past decade and more
InterSECT
recently during the COVID-19 pandemic, social media
and online meeting platforms have played a more sig-
nificant role in supporting these interactions. Major
biomedical journals, scientific societies, and pub-
lic health institutions maintain an official account on
social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
and YouTube) and frequently post information about
new publications, recommendations, scientific state-
ments, guidelines, webinars, and other CME oppor-
tunities. Therefore, following their accounts is a good
way of staying informed of hot topics in all aspects of
biomedical research. The American Heart Association,
the European Stroke Organization, the World Health
Organization, the Centre for Disease Control, and many
other scientific bodies also have an official newslet-
ter where they highlight key recent publications and
advertise CME opportunities. Moreover, active mem-
bership of medical and research societies provides
opportunities to subscribe to their newsletters, join sci-
entific committees or research groups, and build strong
networks to support one’s career.
It is also beneficial to connect with leaders of scien-
tific communities on social media as they are often the
first to post new research findings and guidelines, trial
results, and funding or job opportunities. Some promi-
nent researchers also have accounts on science-focused
social media like ResearchGate or Academia.edu where
one can follow the progress of their projects and access
their publications.
Services to Journals
Voluntary collaborations with biomedical journals, either
as a reviewer or an editor, are excellent opportunities to
get prime access to what is going on behind the scenes
before the public sees the final formatted and published
articles. Reviewing manuscripts allows clinicians and
researchers to learn new methods and know what other
researchers are working on. It can, therefore, boost their
creativity as they prepare for grant applications. It is also
an alternative way for researchers to improve their sci-
entific writing skills by learning from others’ mistakes
and getting a personal experience of what reviewers
like and dislike. Moreover, reviewers are often invited
to write Editorials on articles that they have assessed,
which gives them an opportunity to increase their schol-
arly output.
Institutional CME Opportunities
Because it is challenging for an individual to curate the
whole scientific literature regularly despite personal
commitment and technological advances, because algo-
rithms can fail to bring the relevant information to their
November 2021   e747
 Kamtchum-Tatuene and Zafack
users and because scholarly publications are subject to
misinterpretations, discussions among colleagues within
the same institution will remain an important way of
InterSECT
keeping track of and digesting all the new knowledge
generated daily. Consequently, it is indispensable to save
some time in one’s busy schedule to participate in these
discussions that can take the form of journal clubs, grand
rounds, or seminars. The ideas discussed during a jour-
nal club can eventually be incorporated into a Letter to
the Editor if the article of interest was published recently.
This represents another way to boost one’s scholarly out-
put. Collaborating on review projects every now and then
is also another opportunity to make a focused in-depth
update of one’s knowledge on a selected topic.
BEWARE OF THE PITFALLS!
Keeping up with the fast-growing and ever-changing
medical literature is necessary to safeguard the quality
of patient care, and it helps researchers to remain at
the forefront of their field. There are numerous existing
and emerging tools to help clinicians and researchers
keep track of new knowledge more efficiently. How-
ever, there are some caveats to keep in mind. First,
there is always a risk of information overload, which can
become anxiogenic. Therefore, it is important to define
priority table of contents that are checked immediately
while others are saved for later. It might be better to set
specific time slots in a week to quickly review the infor-
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mation received rather than trying to read all emails
and notifications as they come in. It is also useful to
unsubscribe to some alerts as time goes on and one’s
interests change. Second, being savvy of the latest
research findings or trial results does not replace real-
life experiences. Clinicians and researchers still need
to see patients and conduct their own research proj-
ects. Therefore, it might often be alright to forget about
journals for a week or two during difficult times and
rely on the interactions with colleagues and students to
catch up on the crispiest news. Third, it is good practice
to download and save important articles using specific
key words so that they are easier to retrieve weeks or
months later. Finally, it is good practice to reshare new
knowledge on social media to make it easier for others
to find the information.
e748   November 2021
Keeping Up With the Medical Literature
Staying on top of the literature is both a necessity and a
challenge. Therefore, clinicians and researchers must skill-
fully combine classical and emerging strategies to stay on
top of it for patients, for themselves, and for their careers.
ARTICLE INFORMATION
Affiliations
The Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, Faculty of Medicine and Den-
tistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada (J.K.-T.). Public Health Agency of
Canada (J.G.Z.).
Sources of Funding
None.
Disclosures
Dr Kamtchum-Tatuene is supported by the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry
Motyl Graduate Studentship in Cardiac Sciences, an Alberta Innovates Gradu-
ate Student Scholarship, the Department of Medicine Ballermann Translational
Research Fellowship, the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship, and the Uni-
versity of Alberta Andrew Stewart Memorial Graduate Prize. The other author
reports no conflicts.
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Stroke. 2021;52:e746–e748. DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.121.036141