Impact of gamification techniques on surgical trainee engagement with workplace-based assessment

Purpose Engaging surgical residents and faculty with workplace-based assessment (WBA) are challenging. Gamification has helped engage trainees with simulation and online curricula but has not been used to encourage engagement with assessment. We explore the impact of gamification on engagement with WBA using the Society for Improving Medical Professional Learning (SIMPL) app. Methods General surgery residency programs were divided into two intervention cohorts and a control cohort. The first intervention group received a weekly leaderboard of the most active residents and faculty engaged with SIMPL, while the second intervention group received leaderboards every other week. The control group did not undergo an intervention. For each cohort, resident and faculty engagement with SIMPL was measured, defined as the average number of evaluations submitted per day. Negative binomial mixed models were used to explore the mean number of evaluations completed by residents and faculty in each cohort while adjusting for program-specific factors. Results Nine programs were included in the weekly intervention, nine programs in the biweekly intervention, and nineteen programs in the control group. Programs receiving a weekly leaderboard increased their average daily evaluations from 5.8 to 8.0 over the course of the intervention ( p < 0.01). Average daily evaluations failed to increase for the biweekly intervention (8.2 to 7.3/day, p = 0.14) and control groups (2.7 to 2.5/day, p = 0.48). Conclusions Sending a weekly leaderboard of resident and faculty activity in SIMPL had a positive impact on engagement with WBA compared to biweekly or no leaderboard interventions. Strategically applying gamification may improve engagement with WBA tools.