Medical students experience science communication via moderating podcasts

In an era where misinformation proliferates and public trust in science is crucial, medical professionals must possess the ability to communicate complex medical information accurately and empathetically to patients, colleagues and the broader community in an understandable manner. Therefore, it is essential for medical students to gain competencies in science communication.¹ However, how could we enable students to engage in comprehensive dialogue with society? A promising approach could be a student-moderated live podcast.

In the project ‘YOU ASK we explain’, monthly live podcasts were produced in public locations within the heart of communities, fostering citizen discussions on sensitive medical topics. The recordings took place at locations related to the topics. If we talked about euthanasia, the podcast took place in a cemetery, if we talked about alcohol abuse, we went to a beer garden and if we talked about eating disorders, we went to a farm store. The medical students played a critical role as moderators and link between experts and community. Students developed a moderation guide and got communication training (2 times 2 hours) before the recording. Afterwards the students got oral feedback to their performance from the organisers. For each podcast, we invited an interprofessional discussion panel, consisted of a medical student as moderator, and three experts from different fields (i.e. physicians, pastors, computer scientists and social workers). The audience had the opportunity to ask questions anonymously by cards at any time. The technical support recorded and edited the podcasts and offered them at common podcast platforms. After podcast release, an evaluation of the student moderators showed the skills acquired. Topics of professional, science and rhetorical competencies as well as feedback were assessed on a 5-point Likert scale.

Since January 2023, we produced 15 episodes, which overall had about 550 visitors and 3000 listeners. Interestingly, more female (68% versus 51%) and older (13% versus 4% over 60 years) visitors attended the life events in relation to podcast listeners.

The moderating students were very engaged in the medical school and felt comfortable to give lectures in front of other people. However, the evaluation showed that they improved their skills for future presentations and moderations through the podcast and would like to see the format repeated. The students took about 3 hours for content preparation, to be able to answer any questions at any time, although they were only moderators. They assessed their skills in scientific work as strong, but encountered challenges in introducing controversies into discussions and supporting statements with scientific sources.

The podcast addressed various learning objectives such as medical-scientific skills, communication skills and health counselling. Students improved their scientific skills and, in addition, gained specialist knowledge of topics they were previously unfamiliar.

Next, we aim to prepare medical students more intensively for their role as (science) communicator through an elective course that gains insights into different formats of science communication, like podcasts, social media or popular scientific articles.