The Effect of Community Building Through Virtual, Team-Based Exercise on Burnout (MedMotion)

Harvard Medical School (HMS and HSDM)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Burnout, Student; Community Building; Burnout, Professional; Mentorship; Exercise

Treatments: Behavioral: First 3 months of virtual, team-based exercise; Behavioral: Second 3 months of virtual, team-based exercise

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05194410

2021P000825

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study is a randomized controlled trial that will look at whether virtual, team-based exercise improves burnout, sense of community, and mentorship connections among medical students, residents, fellows, and physicians.

Full description

Participants will be randomized to either a control group or an intervention group. The intervention group will be further randomized onto teams that will exercise for 3 months. All exercise (including walking, biking, lifting, yoga, and 40+ exercises) will be tracked via user's smartwatches (ie Apple, Garmin), smartphone fitness apps (ie MapMyRun), or manual upload, converted into Metabolic Equivalent of a Task (MET) minutes, and displayed on online leaderboards. Group activities will be encouraged by awarding raffle tickets for prizes to those who submit pictures with their teammates. Primary outcomes will be burnout, sense of community, and mentorship connections, with the hypothesis that getting everyone together for this team-based exercise will improve these metrics. After 3 months, both the control and intervention group will be enrolled in 3 months of the intervention to assess secondary outcomes: long-term burnout, sense of community, and mentorship connections, as well as adherence.

Enrollment: 422 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Harvard Medical Students (HMS)
• Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Residents, Fellows, or Attendings

Exclusion criteria

• Non HMS Students or MGH Residents, Fellows, or Attendings

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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422 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

6 months of virtual, team-based exercise

Treatment:

Behavioral: Second 3 months of virtual, team-based exercise

Behavioral: First 3 months of virtual, team-based exercise

Control

Other group

Description:

3 months of usual exercise and then 3 months of virtual, team-based exercise

Treatment:

Behavioral: Second 3 months of virtual, team-based exercise