Hempel, DorotheaPivetta, EmanueleKimberly, Heidi H2014-03-112014Hempel, Dorothea, Emanuele Pivetta, and Heidi H Kimberly. 2014. “Personalized peer-comparison feedback and its effect on emergency medicine resident ultrasound scan numbers.” Critical Ultrasound Journal 6 (1): 1. doi:10.1186/2036-7902-6-1. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2036-7902-6-1.2036-3176http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11879639Background: Clinician-performed ultrasound has become a widely utilized tool in emergency medicine and is a mandatory component of the residency curricula. We aimed to assess the effect of personalized peer-comparison feedback on the number of ultrasound scans performed by emergency medicine residents. Findings: A personalized peer-comparison feedback was performed by sending 44 emergency medicine residents a document including personally identified scan numbers and class averages. The number of ultrasound scans per clinical shift for a 3-month period before and after the feedback intervention was calculated. The average number of ultrasound exams per shift improved from 0.39 scans/shift before to 0.61 scans/shift after feedback (p = 0.04). Among the second year residents, the scans/shift ratio improved from 0.35 to 0.87 (p = 0.07); for third year residents, from 0.51 to 0.58 (p = 0.46); and from 0.33 to 0.41 (p = 0.21) for the fourth year residents before and after the intervention, respectively. Conclusions: A personalized peer-comparison feedback provided to emergency medicine residents resulted in increased ultrasound scan numbers per clinical shift. Incorporating this method of feedback may help encourage residents to scan more frequently.en-USJournal Article2014-03-1110.1186/2036-7902-6-1