Free Open Access Medical Education (FOAM) and its relevance to military clinicians

Abstract Clinicians are expected to regularly update their professional knowledge, and in doing so, they navigate more complex and wide-ranging educational resources, putting greater pressure on their time. Free open-access medical education (FOAM) is an environment led predominantly through social media which enables discussion, education and rapid dissemination of journal articles and other educational material. The Defence Medical Services have many different employment groups spread across a variety of medical specialties. FOAM can provide benefits to military clinicians in promoting and disseminating the work being done, and in terms of recruitment and education of clinical personnel, both in the firm base and in deployed settings. There are several potential pitfalls among FOAM resources which can be addressed by carefully appraising the resources being used and being aware of the possible biases. This article aims to highlight the possible uses of FOAM within the military as well as some methods to help engage users and ensure they are able to negotiate the hazards of the FOAM world.