Purple Pen Podcast - Podcasting: A novel medium of continuing education for pharmacy professionals.

Abstract

Introduction: In Australia, pharmacists are required to accumulate 40 points of continuing education each registration year. Continuing education opportunities have traditionally included conference attendance, specialist workshops, evening lectures, workplace education and reading pharmacy journals. The advent of new mediums such as podcasting offer pharmacists more flexible learning opportunities than traditional approaches. A podcast, in its most basic form, is a digital audio file, made available on the internet for downloading and listening to at a time of the users choosing. Method(s): A group of Australian pharmacists founded and host The Purple Pen Podcast, a long interview format podcast. Whilst the Podcast was originally pitched at Hospital Pharmacists, feedback from listeners indicates that the listenership includes pharmacy students, community pharmacists and other healthcare professionals. Topics for each episode are sourced from the hosts' clinical practice, the latest medical evidence, contemporary issues in pharmacy practice and feedback from listeners. The Podcast is not sponsored and does not accept speaker suggestions from pharmaceutical companies to minimise any conflicts of interest. Result(s): There have been 166 episodes of the Purple Pen Podcast released between October 2016 and October 2024. The podcast has been downloaded over 265,791 times, an average of over 1600 listeners per episode. The most popular episode, entitled "Type II Diabetes" has been downloaded a total of 4031 times since release in September 2022. Other popular episodes include Coronavirus, Deprescribing Psychotropics, Cholesterol Update and Chronic Kidney Disease. Whilst the majority of podcast listeners are based in Australia (89%), the Purple Pen Podcast has been downloaded from 141 countries. Conclusion(s): Podcasting is a viable alternative medium for the provision of education to pharmacists. The Purple Pen Podcast provides listeners with free continuing education at a location and time of their choosing.