title: Spaced learning using emails to integrate psychiatry into general medical curriculum: Keep psychiatry in mind.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Traditionally, medical students on clinical rotations receive instruction on principles of mental health only during the psychiatry clerkship. We used emails to insert teaching of psychiatric concepts beyond the psychiatry clerkship into other rotations using the method of spaced learning, the delivery of brief morsels of information repeated over time intervals. We predicted that the intervention would improve attitudes and confidence towards the integration of psychiatry and knowledge retention.
  
  
  METHODS
  We developed and distributed a series of emails relating key psychiatric concepts targeted to the other core clerkships.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In a cluster-randomized trial over one academic year (intervention group n = 71, control group n = 61), scores on the Attitudes and Confidence in the Integration of Psychiatry scale and on the knowledge quiz did not differ significantly. Students who actively engaged with the emails demonstrated significantly higher scores on the knowledge test. Email users valued the timing, format of delivery and application of psychiatric principles outside the psychiatric setting. Participants recommended simplifying the format and previewing the benefits of spaced learning to increase utilization.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Delivering spaced learning through emails, within a curriculum designed to foster engagement, may provide an efficient means of addressing the widely-recognized but elusive goal of integrating teaching across medical disciplines.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry , University of Michigan , Ann Arbor , MI , USA.
authors.forename: Mary C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Blazek
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychiatry , Rush University Medical Center , Chicago , IL , USA.|c Department of Internal Medicine , Rush University Medical Center , Chicago , IL , USA.
authors.forename: Bezalel
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dantz
authors.affiliation: d Center for Research on Learning and Teaching , University of Michigan , Ann Arbor , MI , USA.
authors.forename: Mary C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.affiliation: e Department of Psychiatry , The University of Iowa , Iowa City , IA , USA.|f Department of Internal Medicine , Carver College of Medicine, The University of Iowa , Iowa City , IA , USA.|g Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health , The University of Iowa , Iowa City , IA , USA.
authors.forename: Jess G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Fiedorowicz
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002982:Clinical Clerkship; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods; D034742:Electronic Mail / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008824:Michigan; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult