There are a ridiculous amount of new research articles coming out each month, or heck even day, now.
It’s really overwhelming.
But a ton of the research is actually not the best quality. So in this week’s episode we wanted to update you on how we are currently staying on top of new research ourselves.
To view more episodes, subscribe, and ask your questions, go to mikereinold.com/askmikereinold.
#AskMikeReinold Episode 253: How to Stay Current and Not Get Overwhelmed with New Research
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Show Notes
- Not All Research is the Same: The Difference Between Good and Bad Research
- The Good and Bad of Education on Social Media
Transcript
Mike Reinold:
An international question from Jordan. He says, “Hello, Champion crew.” Hello. Cheerio. “I’ve been working my way through all the podcasts so far since I found that around six months ago and they’re great.” Thank you, Jordan. Appreciate that. That’s a lot of nonsense you’ve probably listened to. I hope you’ve gotten a couple of good pearls from that, but that’s a lot of nonsense. We’re almost at 300 now, right? What are we, over like 250 now? I don’t even know.
Lenny Macrina:
Big celebration.
Mike Reinold:
We’re going to do it. We’re going to, right when COVID-22 hits, we’re going to start the next one, but yeah, I appreciate it, Jordan. So let’s see. Jordan’s question is, is, “Where do you all go to look for new research? I’m a first year PT student and really want to be productive with spare time and wider reading.” And I like this question because we do get it every now and then, and we have answered it in certain ways in the past, but I do think it’s important that questions like this, that we keep current, right? Because I do think that our opinions change a little bit.
Mike Reinold:
So I don’t know. Maybe we can all briefly kind of talk about some of our habits and what we do a little bit here, but I think the main question is he wants to know is where do you go to look for a new research, right? And that’s a huge question. So why don’t we talk about specifically what each of us do. And I think from there, maybe we’ll have some good ideas for Jordan. So who wants to go first? One at a time. All right, Tilley, what do you think? Tilley definitely stays up with the research. How do you handle all the information?
Dave Tilley:
I have followed your guys’ lead, and I typically go for journal updates or alerts via email. So when a new monthly journal comes out, I will subscribe to the table of contents, give it a scan through. There’s probably like one or two articles, I’m like, “Hmm. Maybe.” And then I’ll read the abstract, and if it seems like it fits what I’m either seeing in the clinic or things I’m interested in, I’ll get the full access and I’ll go that way.
Dave Tilley:
And then I think personally for me, just getting alerts on certain authors or certain subjects that are really kind of in my wheelhouse. So things that are maybe unique. So I’ve used this example in the past, but I treat a lot of like, you know, the hypermobile hip, so hip micro instability, and it’s a few surgeons and people who are publishing pretty great research there, elbow OCD is unique to gymnastics, so I just stay in line with the authors that are publishing there. And usually either you find their work or they’re on papers with other authors who are also in that space. And I just kind of follow down the rabbit hole a little bit into those authors and things of that nature. And it seems to be helpful.
Mike Reinold:
Yeah. So I think that’s a great first strategy, right? So for each of the main medical journals that we follow, they all should have a way of getting updated when they have a new issue or actually nowadays it’s not even an issue based, more it’s now that they’re released online. So you could get an update or two a day technically from that.
Mike Reinold:
So I think that’s a good first one. And then the other one is, is you can do this in pub med, which is like the big online database to search for journal articles, is you can set up specific alerts to searches. So you could search for an author, or you can search for a query, right? So like a topic that you want. So I have a bunch of those that go out and I get updates once a month because you can get a lot of those. But with authors that I follow that I really respect and topics, I’ll get an email once a month with all the updates for that. So based on that, let me ask you a question here. There’s a million journals out there. Dave, how do you decide which journals that you follow?
Dave Tilley:
Well, you definitely know there are some journals that are kind of more higher tier, higher quality, right? So, [inaudible 00:04:13], those ones are in our PT world are there. And then a lot of surgical journals, right? Like Elbow and Shoulder and AJSM, those ones are just kind of known to be high quality research journals that are very, very strict on who they accept, Sports Health is another one, why they accept.
Dave Tilley:
So just the quality of the journal kind of, you can tend over time if you subscribe to a journal and you find the papers are less than valid or less than reliable.
Mike Reinold:
Yeah. Unsubscribe.
Dave Tilley:
If you look at the methods four or five times in a study and you’re like, “Eh.” And month to month it’s kind of shaky, then you’re probably going to lean away from that. But I guess they kind of just like rise to the top, right? If you keep seeing the same journal coming up over and over in presentations, or when you talk with people, or if the people in those authors that are publishing are pretty high quality, they’re great clinicians, they work pretty stringent at universities, then you can kind of follow those.
Mike Reinold:
And I that’s a good place to start too, because there’s a million journals out there. You can follow a bunch and you’re going to get overwhelmed, right? Especially the ones that have these new online journals, right, because they’re just pumping out millions of them because it’s a for-profit machine, right? So there is a lot of articles, most of them are garbage, right? You’ve got to keep that in mind.
Mike Reinold:
So let’s start real simple, follow JOSPT, International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy, AJSM, and then probably British Journal of Sports Medicine would probably be the top four. And then if you have specific things like you like shoulder elbow joint, you know, do journal shoulder elbow surgery, or general athletic training, or strength and conditioning, for example, you have those specific ones, but why don’t you just start with those? They’re the most editorial based. They have large editorial crews. They have great peer reviews. You know you’re going to get quality research there and not go down any rabbit holes. So that’s a good technique. Let me see, Len, what do you do? How do you stay current?
Lenny Macrina:
Yeah, I do everything that everybody has talked about. And I think another thing that has really helped me, and then also helps me to interact is, believe it or not, Twitter and social media. I know some people don’t do it as much and … Or kind of poo poo on it, just because it can get really intense, but I take what it gives me and I don’t try to do too much most of the time. I do instigate a little, but I follow people on Twitter that I respect, and if they’re putting research out, they’re going to tweet it, or somebody will retweet it, or you just start talking about and you see it, like, “Ooh, I missed that, but, ooh, I want to look into that.” And you can interact with the author and like, “Hey, great job, love this research. You know, can you give me a little more details on blah, blah, blah.” And you have a conversation with the author about their research. It’s pretty neat.
Lenny Macrina:
So I do, I use a lot of social media, especially Twitter, for this. And then I will use that to even use it for my own social media posts, meaning like Instagram, or something that like Dan has been doing, Dan Pope has been doing is he’ll put a great content out and then he’ll also put a research article out that is influencing how he’s treating. So I think it’s a win-win to be able to interact with the authors and to be able to kind of see what’s out there that’s new.
Mike Reinold:
That’s good too. So follow some people on social media that are … That some people, like Twitter is a big one where you’re like, “Oh, this was cool. I just read this.”
Lenny Macrina:
Yeah.
Mike Reinold:
Where then Instagram’s probably more cool, like, “Oh, I read this, and here’s what I’m thinking type thing.”
Lenny Macrina:
Right.
Mike Reinold:
You do just, you need to be a little bit careful right there, because sometimes what you’re doing is you’re getting really biased interpretations of it.
Lenny Macrina:
Yes. Yeah.
Mike Reinold:
I think the most important thing you do is that like, and that’s why I think Twitter is good is if somebody is talking about an article, you just go read the article, right?
Lenny Macrina:
Right.
Mike Reinold:
Like, don’t read the educational posts. Now, I trust Dan Pope and fitnesspainfree.com, right, because I know he’s going to have some reliable tidbits. So I follow him and I learn when he posts something. But there’s a lot of people that are just regurgitating some bias or maybe their interpretation isn’t what I kind of would have done with things. So I think that’s good.
Mike Reinold:
One tip I have for you for Twitter, if you want to get involved in the Twitter research game, is when you’re talking about an article, don’t take a screenshot of the article without a link, just send the link to PubMed, right? I hate when people do that, and you know who I’m talking about, right? But you say this is a great article and then you take a screen capture of it. So now it’s like a 30 word title, I can’t even select it and paste it into PubMed to find the article. It’s impossible. If you want to start a conversation, have the links, so that way we can all read it. Just a little tidbit. That’s a little free tidbit on this week’s episode.
Mike Reinold:
So, all right, Lisa, what about you? What do you do? Anything different on your end with how you stay current?
Lisa Russell:
I mean, I feel like I do a lot of what everybody just said. I’m newer to the Twitter paying attention. I was overwhelmed by that for a while, and I’ve recently started paying attention and have started following a lot of growing research authors. And I feel like I get a new article every day or every other day to read that I like otherwise wouldn’t have noticed. So that’s pretty cool.
Mike Reinold:
That’s great. Also, I think that’s a good tip though, Lisa, right there is that you started Twitter, I was like this at the beginning of Twitter, you overwhelmed yourself by following too much, right? And you’ll find that, just don’t be afraid to unfollow people, right, and kind of like get a little broad and then, “Oh, you know what? I’m not getting as much.” like really narrow it down, so that way the things you see are impactful. So awesome. Keep going. Sorry. I just thought that was really cool.
Lisa Russell:
And then, yeah. And then similarly, I follow a lot of authors that tend to pump out the rowing research so that I’m up to date on that. And then, I mean, between, I don’t know, then I feel like I read one thing and I’m like, “Ooh, that’s interesting.” And I see in the citations they have within that paper, of course, that there’s other things, so I’m like, “Okay. Yes, this would be cool for me to read to so that I can understand it better.”
Mike Reinold:
Love it.
Lisa Russell:
So I feel like I just then …
Mike Reinold:
Yes.
Lisa Russell:
Sort of spiral for a bit, but yeah. And, I mean, I feel like as the new grad, I struggled with making time for current research, because I felt like I was semi just overwhelmed with learning how to do my job …
Mike Reinold:
Right.
Lisa Russell:
And I didn’t feel like my brain had space for anything more. So I feel like it’s something that as I have progressed and prioritized time for, and it definitely, it makes a big difference, but …
Mike Reinold:
I like that, that’s a good tidbit. I mean, it’s probably going to … It’s okay that you feel overwhelmed at the beginning, because you’ve got a lot going on, you’re learning a lot of new things, but I like that point, that was huge, Lisa, is when you’re reading an article and you’re reading the intro and the discussion, there’s references, right? And then you end up reading those articles. I think that’s another great way, because they make like a very profound statement in the introduction in that like, “Hey, we’re doing this study because of these things.” So like, “Oh man, that’s fantastic. I can go read that study now.” That’s a great way to also stay current, is to make sure you’re reading through the references that are relevant. So awesome. What about you, Dan? What do you do?
Dan Pope:
Well, I was just going to add, everything that everyone else says. I mean, I think I ran through an article or a webinar, the Mike Reinold Inner Circle, I don’t know, like seven or eight years ago, that outlined your way of going through research, and I’ve followed that since, and we’ve talked about that several times.
Dan Pope:
I think one thing I will say, and I think this is a problem, as human beings, that we have right now is there’s way too much information out there, and our brains are not meant to be able to take all of this in. And, for me, I started off by trying to learn as much as possible, and I still do, but one of the things I’ve changed a lot is that I don’t have a superficial of a lot of … Understanding a lot of different things anymore, I try to go a little bit deeper on certain topics. And for me, that’s been, I read an article I’m like, “Wow, this is really relevant. This is going to change my practice. Or it really influences the way I think, I’m going to try to, let’s say, make a seminar or a little webinar about it. I’ll try to make a social media post. I’ll talk to the students about it, I’ll try to share it, I’ll start these discussions.” And then we’ll try to get more understanding from that one article.
Dan Pope:
And then I’ll actually go back and update my thought process and reread these articles, reread my own social media, see if I still agree with that and then update it. And I think that allows me to actually learn a bit better and be a better practitioner over the course of time, because what I was finding as I was reading so much information that I wasn’t really taking anything from anything. I would say like, “Oh wow, I read this book or this article like years ago, I got nothing from that and I forgot everything.” So I think you have to be a little cautious, and sometimes less is more, and try to go a little deeper on certain topics as opposed to learn so much, because there’s a ridiculous amount out there.
Mike Reinold:
Yeah, no, that’s sweet, Dan, and great point there too, about how you, so the way Dan synthesizes the evidence a little bit is that he then tries to make an Instagram post or whatever about that information. That’s a great thing a student can do, right? And I tell that to our students all the time, and share your journey, share what you’re learning, don’t proclaim false expertise, and don’t come up with these great huge statements based on what you read about like, “Oh, now that, you know, now that I read this, all this is wrong.” Just say like, “Oh wow. I just read this study, and here’s a couple of key points that I’m going to go forward.” But I like that. Like, you’re early in your career as a student, why don’t you pick a topic that you’re passionate about right now that maybe you’re not learning about in school. So maybe you’re in neuro time, but you really liked gymnastics, right? Well, do some PubMed stuff, right, and make sure you’re following the gymnastics stuff to keep your brain passionate about gymnastics.
Mike Reinold:
So let me see. I know Diwesh wanted to say something, but Mike, or do you have to go? I know we’re getting close. Mike might have something. Why don’t you, if you have anything else, why don’t you jump in just in case you have to take off, Mike?
Mike Scaduto:
I think Dan Pope’s point was great. It doesn’t seem to be a consumption issue for new grads, it seems to be an integration in the synthesization, if that’s a word, but I think …
Mike Reinold:
That’s awesome.
Mike Scaduto:
The more you consume is not necessarily better. Choose things that are relevant to you, and then go on a little bit of a deeper dive and try and integrate it into your practice. I think that’s the best way to learn, especially as a new grad from the new research.
Mike Reinold:
Right. And I think it’s a great way, if you have a normal just gen pop, like outpatient ortho job, but you really love golf, right? It’s a way to keep your brain going about golf, is just make sure you’re on top of the golf literature. And as new things come out, you apply it. And you know, you’re going to accidentally get really good at golf over time, just by like by repetitions and then your practice will start to specialize. That’d be great. So awesome. All right. Diwesh, what about you? Anything different in the strength and conditioning world?
Diwesh Poudyal:
I don’t know that it’s that different in the strength conditioning world, but I kind of wanted to take it from like a slightly different perspective. And it’s kind of going off what Dan was saying a little bit about over-consumption, but also adding to what Mike just said about not necessarily worrying about over-consumption early on, but I know I definitely ran into the problem of, early on, when I first started coaching, was I was taking in so much information, like to the point where I felt like I had zero thoughts of my own, I felt like I was just kind of saying what everyone else in the industry was saying, whether it was other strength coaches or even PTs that I was learning from. And it made it really hard for me to come up with concepts and systems and big picture stuff in my own head and to really start applying that stuff. And it just really felt like I didn’t have my own coaching style, or own coaching ideologies and stuff.
Diwesh Poudyal:
So for me, I actually, and this was probably about two years ago at this point, so I, you know, after having coached for three years and taken in an insane amount of information and doing a ton of con ed, I got to the point, it was just like not having my own thoughts. So I said like, “All right, for six months, I’m going to go without taking, without taking any information.” I literally shut out for six months of learning from other people. But what I did was I took that time to really start troubleshooting stuff and ideas in my own head and really start applying a lot of the stuff that I had learned for the last three to six years since I was looking at all this stuff since I was in school, and really started applying it to my athletes, having conversations with my peers and mentors and other people in the industry and stuff.
Diwesh Poudyal:
I think that probably made me a better coach, because I got to really think about all this stuff in my own head. And I think that’s definitely something that people can get in trouble with. They just kind of start regurgitating what everyone else is saying or blindly following research or whatever, and it gets to the point of not really having your own concepts and ideas.
Diwesh Poudyal:
So that’s just a little bit of what I did for a period of time. It’s not me saying like, “Hey, don’t look at research and like don’t do con ed.” You definitely have to, I’m definitely back in the thick of it, and probably consuming a bunch of podcasts and all that stuff now. But there definitely was a period of time where I just kind of shut out for a little bit and I felt like I benefited from it.
Mike Reinold:
That’s awesome. You know, and I think the general underlying theme that I’m hearing for everybody here is that it’s easy to get overwhelmed, and you’re going to not learn anything if you try to learn everything, right? I think that’s a really, really big point here. So be really, really smart and strict with what you’re learning, right? And I think that will be very helpful for you, right? So if you feel deficient with a certain thing that you need to do for your job, so you get a job and there’s a ton of lower back pain patients then be really strict on digging into the research to kind of learn for that, but then otherwise going forward, stick to some of the main journals, some of the most reputable journals that you know are not going to publish garbage, that just might confuse you, right? Because if you have a terrible study that has terrible methodology, it sometimes doesn’t help. It makes things more confusing.
Mike Reinold:
So keep that in mind with the literature. Sometimes the literature just adds doubt, right? We see this with studies all the time that have a wide variety of people with a wide variety of problems and they’re trying to answer a question. It doesn’t make sense. It’s too vague, right? So be specific, don’t get overwhelmed, just look for those special little things that interest you the most. And I think that’s probably the best approach.
Mike Reinold:
So awesome. All right. Great job. Thanks, Jordan, for the question, we really appreciate it. If you have a question like that, please head to mikereinold.com, click on that podcast link and ask away, and we will be sure to see you on the next episode. Thanks again.
