Opportunities and Challenges of Using a Performance Record or Logbook in Medical Education: A Systematic Review Study

Traditionally, logbooks are used as a tool to record and evaluate the activities of students, interns and medical assistants. The use of logbooks in the education of medical students has not been fully explored. In the present study, a systematic review of studies was conducted in the field of logbook in medical education.

The present study is a systematic review of the use of logbooks in medical education. Searching was conducted until January 1, 2021, in Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and Scopus databases with keywords "logbook", "medical education", "residency", "practical training", "Medical students" and "Resident students". In the selected articles, authors' names, year of study, country, field of study, type of logbook, study design, study limit and general conclusion were extracted.

In the present study, out of 23 articles reviewed, 11 studies were included in qualitative synthesis.Variety of study methods prevented quantitative meta-analysis. The highest number of articles was done in surgical students (4 studies). Five of our studies reported the use of online logbooks. Seven studies examined the role of logbooks in student assessment. The rest of the studies examined the acceptability of the logbook for students and faculty. The main limitations acknowledged in the studies were the need for an observer to verify the information, the need for time and financial resources to properly implement the activity registration program, and the problems associated with data collection.

A review of studies showed that the field of research on the use of logbooks in medical education further refers to its concept in assessing student learning, which in most cases show its effectiveness. However, there are many differences between studies in terms of acceptability and reliability of data depending on the method of using logbooks.