Journal clubs are a great way to translate research into practice. In March 2020 PEDro published a blog that outlined some key features of running a successful journal club. Since then we have released material for two journal clubs: Constraint induced movement therapy after stroke and Exercise for falls prevention in community dwelling older people.

The idea is for physiotherapists to use resources provided by PEDro as the basis for running a local journal club with their peers. The resources provided include: a research article that addresses an important evidence-practice gap; a video summary of the article; a panel discussion about the article that explores applying the results into practice; and, links to resources to support ongoing discussion and implementation.

The PEDro World-Wide Journal Club has attracted the attention of the global physiotherapy community. In just under 3 months nearly 3,000 physiotherapists have visited the Journal Club web-site and the YouTube videos have been viewed 757 times. Posts on Facebook and Twitter about the Journal Club have a reach of nearly 14,000.

Sherebanu Ujjainwala and her colleagues, alumni from the Physiotherapy School and Centre at the TN Medical College and the BYL Nair Charitable Hospital in Mumbai, have shared their experience with running the Constraint induced movement therapy after stroke journal club with the PEDro Team. Because of the social distancing measures in place for the COVID-19 pandemic, this group of physiotherapists held their discussion via Zoom. It was their first try of a journal club format. They saw it as a great opportunity to encourage reading and critical appraisal of clinical research. The panel discussion video and links to resources were particularly useful for their local discussion. Sherebanu said: “the information regarding barriers and challenges to application was interesting and became a key point of discussion for our group.”

If you have run a local journal club using the PEDro materials, please let us know. We’d like to know what your local journal club experience was like and any feedback you may have about the materials provided by PEDro.

The purpose of the PEDro World-Wide Journal Club is to encourage the global physiotherapy community to read trials, reviews and guidelines that have important implications for practice. We hope that facilitating discussion of this research will help physiotherapists to implement the results into their clinical practice. We plan to release material for two more journal clubs later in 2020.