Fellowship Toolkit

The RheumMadness Fellowship Toolkit: How to Incorporate RheumMadness Into Your Fellowship Curriculum

RheumMadness is a FREE online collaborative learning activity in which rheumatology learning concepts are used to create a March Madness style bracket competition. If you’ve never heard of RheumMadness before, you can head over to our RheumMadness 101 page which includes a short explainer video to get started you started.

Other ways to connect with RheumMadness

  1. Subscribe to the RheumMadness newsletter.
  2. Listen to the RheumMadness podcast, available on all major podcasting apps.
  3. Follow us on Bluesky!
  4. Follow us on Instagram!
  5. Join the conversation on X, formerly known as Twitter using #RheumMadness.

Why should I incorporate RheumMadness into my fellowship program?

RheumMadness participants consistently report a positive learning experience and increased connection to the rheumatology community. We learned that some fellowship programs have integrated RheumMadness in a variety of ways to boost connection within their own program and beyond.  Each section below describes how you use RheumMadness based on your role. We encourage you to spread the word to other roles in your program; for example, if you are a fellow and used a RheumMadness topic as inspiration for a journal article, you can forward this information to your Attending on service or Program Director and share your experience with them. 

Program Director/Associate Program Director

    1. Within scheduled didactics/curriculum
      1. Select one topic/core paper to discuss within allotted curriculum time: this can be as quick as using 10 minutes to lead a brief discussion on the paper including strengths/weaknesses, major take home points, and current use in clinical practice. This can be led by yourself, faculty, or a fellow. This can be done weekly, biweekly, once per month – whatever works best. There are estimated 12-16 topics for planning purposes
    2. Competitive journal club (light version)
      1. Assign each of your fellows (or group of fellows) a group of topics, or a “region” within the bracket. They are responsible for reading the core papers and scouting reports, and reporting back to the group on strength/weaknesses, conclusions, and translation to current clinical practice
      2. Each group can predict who they believe the winner will be within their region, then compare this to the winning team(s) announced in April
    3. Competitive journal club (heavy version)
      1. Assign each fellow to a topic by reviewing and choosing the most relevant topics in the tournament. Using scouting reports to screen the topics and core papers is a quicker way to determine which topics are most high yield in your opinion.
      2. The fellow can then present the paper in a formal journal club format to the program during a scheduled didactic/journal club.
      3. The fellows can be encouraged to read the other topics and core papers selected by the program director, and thus compare their topic to others chosen to predict which will be labeled the “most important” topic in rheumatology
      4. Predictions can be compared to the winners announced in April
    4. Design/encourage a competitive tournament amongst your fellows (and faculty)
      1. When the RheumMadness bracket and scouting reports are released, announce to your department/division that the RheumMadness season has begun, encouraging them to participate. You can use the “Overview of RheumMadness” as a basis for an announcement or email content.
      2. Encourage each fellow and faculty to review the topics and submit a bracket.
      3. Give updates throughout the season to keep people engaged. This can be by announcing podcast releases, highlighting a different topic’s scouting report at scheduled intervals with thought-provoking discussion points, ending weekly didactic sessions with a 5 minute excerpt from one of the scouting reports that grabs attention and encourages conversation
        1. If you have a fellow particularly interested in medical education, you can have them lead this process for your program.

Attending Preceptor

    1. Inpatient setting: Inspiration for discussion on rounds
      1. Browse the topics prior to (or during) your time on service, checking for particularly relevant core papers that relate to patients on your service
      2. Read the scouting report and paper associated with that topic, and bring these points to rounds
      3. Direct your fellow(s) and other learner(s) to the RheumMadness website to learn more about that topic and others
    2. Inpatient setting: Assign a learner to be a “RheumMadness reporter”
      1. Identify an interested student or resident in becoming a “RheumMadness reporter” by learning about one topic per day, then taking time the following day to report back to the team regarding study questions, main results, and conclusions important for clinical practice.
      2. You can encourage friendly competition among your inpatient team (especially if you have multiple learners) to complete brackets and compare how well they do at the end of the season
    3. Outpatient setting:
      1. Browse the topics released in late fall and determine which are most relevant to your fellow’s clinic patient(s)
      2. Provide your fellow with the paper and scouting report, encouraging them to go on the RheumMadness website for further topics and ability to discuss on social media, listen to podcasts, or participate in the tournament
      3. Ask your fellow to “teach back” this topic as well as others they have learned about while participating in the tournament

Fellow

    1. Lead a RheumMadness Fellowship team
      1. Talk to your co-fellows about RheumMadness and determine if there is a topic you all would like to submit.
      2. Prior to September, reach out to RheumMadness leadership indicating your interest in leading a team, including which topic and core paper you would like to use
      3. Throughout the season, you will lead the creation of the scouting report and can even participate in podcasts about your topic.
      4. See how far your team gets in the tournament when results are released in April!
        1. Pro-tip: each team member can submit a bracket and participate in the tournament
    2. Use RheumMadness topics as inspiration for journal club articles
      1. Topics have been chosen mostly by fellowship programs throughout the country, and are considered highly relevant to current or future clinical practice. You can browse the topics (reading the scouting reports is a quick way to do so) and select a core paper you find most interesting and relevant for a journal club.
    3. Create a competition within your fellowship
      1. Announce to your co-fellows on social media, group chats, email, or in person when RheumMadness starts in late fall.
      2. Encourage co-fellows to submit brackets
      3. Compare who got farthest in the tournament when results are released in April for bragging rights!