Journal Club

I recently presented at our department journal club. Every month, a fellow selects a recent pertinent research article and prepares an hour long talk presenting the context for the research, analyzing the data, and drawing conclusions on how our care should change. I picked an article looking at endovascular treatments for stroke. Journal club reminds me a little of a book club; lots of people show up, but not many read the assignment. There's always one or two people that show up fired up about the article. At the end of the day, we have a nicely intellectual conversation but it rarely translates to profound changes in our clinical care. I always wondered about the utility of discussing one article a month; so much out there is published, journal club is hardly a practical way to keep current with cutting edge research. Nevertheless, I do enjoy in-depth critiques of papers. I can almost always find flaws in the analyses, assumptions, or conclusions. In many ways, it reminds me of my days as a philosophy major when I would spend significant time deconstructing articles.