The New Embryology Journal Club - eJC STAR format: An equation for evidence-based education and embryologists’ empowerment
Journal clubs are a valuable tool to assist learners in the evaluation of scientific literature and to promote the adoption of evidence-based practices. The Middle East Fertility Society Embryology Specialty Interest Group developed a concise journal club to enhance the engagement of embryologists and provide the structure of a journal club. The embryology journal club STAR format is a monthly super group journal club meeting in which an invited presenting “star” author exposes his group’s article to the entire embryologist’s community. In our modified approach, instead of a traditional lecture, the journal article to be discussed will be sent to participants in advance in conjunction with the STAR (Study design validity, Tackling the methodology, Analysis of the results, Reflecting the results into practice) critical appraisal checklist and a short online quiz to be completed before the meeting. The concise embryology journal club STAR format may be beneficial for embryologists to help them develop an efficient and consistent means to appraise evidence in clinical practice and stay abreast of the latest clinical research.