THE JOURNAL CLUB

As the body of medical literature continues to expand, physicians must develop the necessary skills to keep up with the vast amount of infor mation available. The journal club provides a forum to allow residents to remain current with the literature while also teaching them the me thods to evaluate it critically. Those readers wishing to start a jour nal club or revive an existing one should begin by designating a leade r and defining the conference goals. Emphasizing the importance of thi s conference in the educational process while allowing it to be struct ured to optimise resident interest and attendance will help to ensure its success. Periodic evaluation of this conference will allow the org anisers to assess the concordance of the resident's goals with those o f the faculty. Formal evaluation will also provide an objective assess ment of the knowledge gained by the house-staff through participation in journal club.