We are excited to introduce an offshoot of the AIR series (Approved Instructional Resources) called the AIR Professional series! The AIR-Pro series was conceived to answer more advanced level concepts, while continuing to follow the AIR series model of providing a credible method to identify quality blogs and podcasts. Similar to the AIR Series, we hope to provide U.S. Emergency Medicine residents an additional resource for Individualized Interactive Instruction (III) conference credit.
Scheduling of Modules
Approximately every 2 months, the AIR-Pro Board will release a list of high-quality blog posts and podcasts specifically selected in various advanced topic areas. As with the AIR Series, we will have an accompanying multiple choice quiz for AIR-Pro and Honorable mention posts, and track who completes it. If approved by their program director, EM residents who complete the quiz can receive III credit, similar to the AIR Series (read more about the AIR Series).
Why create an AIR-Pro Series in addition to the AIR Series?
We created this series because the AIR-Series has clearly filled a niche for III credit at over 65 U.S. EM residency programs. Many programs however struggle to give credit to the upper level resident completing the same material as the junior resident. We seek to use our expertise to determine upper level concepts and assist residency programs to promote asynchronous learning, online education, as well as reward residents who already effectively utilize blogs and podcasts in their lifelong learning plans.
To do this, we searched educational blogs and podcasts in a slightly different manner than the AIR Series.
| AIR Series | AIR-Pro Series | |
| Date of blog post or podcast publication | Within 12 months of search date | Anytime |
| Included list of blogs and podcasts for search | Only the top 50 websites per the Social Media Index | A much broader list of blogs and podcasts maintained at FOAMSearch.net |
| Included topics | All topics within a large subject area, as listed on the CORD Tests schedule (e.g. pulmonary, gastrointestinal, etc.) | A limited number of very focused, advanced-level clinical queries within the featured subject area |
How do we select the articles?
For each major subject category, 5 EM Chief Residents propose 3-5 advanced clinical questions. Using FOAMsearch.net, an exhaustive comprehensive search is performed, finding all posts answering the clinical questions. These relevant posts are scored by 8 reviewers, among the AIR-Pro Board, using a revised version of the AIR Series scoring instrument. Depending on the redundancy of the highest scoring posts, 2-3 of these are selected to address each preselected question. To decrease any obvious bias, members of the AIR-Pro Board recuse themselves from evaluating posts they wrote or were directly involved in writing.
The AIR-Pro scoring instrument looks at five measurement outcomes, each using a Likert 7-point scale:
- Recency
- Content Accuracy
- Educational Utility for the Senior Resident
- Evidence Based Medicine
- Referenced
AIR-Pro: How is the scoring different from AIR?
There are 2 areas where the AIR-Pro scoring instrument differs from the previous AIR Series instrument.
- We replaced the Best Evidence in Emergency Medicine (BEEM) domain with Recency. Based on our experience with the AIR Series, we observed that many high-quality, advanced-level blogs and podcasts were older than 12 months. This 12 month cut-off was created partly to avoid impractically long lists of blog posts and podcasts to review each month. Because the AIR-Pro Series asks very focused questions, we removed this timeframe cutoff. Instead, more recently published posts were slightly favored with higher awarded points.
- The Educational Utility domain specifically targeted senior residents and not just residents in general in order to identify more advanced level educational content.
More background information about III
Read more at the AIR Series informational page.
I am an EM resident desiring III credit for AIR-Pro content
Please speak with your program director about this possibility. If you are told that the AIR-Pro series is approved for credit at your institution, complete the end-of-module quiz below and your participation will be recorded for your program director. Of course, you are always welcome to take the quiz for your own learning purposes.
I am an EM residency program interested in implementing the AIR-Pro series for III credit
If you already have administrative access to the Google Drive document with all resident participants in the AIR Series, you will automatically have access to the AIR Pro Administrative Spreadsheet as well. If you do not, please contact us for log-in access.
Members of AIR-Pro Board
- Robert Cooney MD, Associate Program Director, Geisinger Emergency Medicine Residency Program
- Michael Hansen DO, Chief Resident, Christiana Care
- Nadim Lalani CEd, MD, FRCPC, Clinical Assistant Professor, Royal University Hospital
- Evan Leibner MD, Ph.D, Chief Resident, Stony Brook University
- Michelle Lin MD, ALiEM Editor-in-Chief, UCSF Associate Professor and Academy Endowed Chair for EM Education
- Andy Little DO, Chief Resident, Doctors Hospital
- Lynn Roppolo, MD, Associate Program Director and Associate Professor, University of Texas Southwestern Department of EM
- Salim Rezaie MD, Creator & Founder REBEL EM, Clinical Assistant Professor EM/IM, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
- Jeff Riddell MD, Education Fellow, University of Washington
- Maggie Sheehy MD, MSC, Chief Resident, University of Illinois Chicago
- Fareen Zaver MD, Chief Resident, George Washington University
- Samuel Zidovetzki MD, Chief Resident, University of Wisconsin
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