Concurrent Validity Between a Shared Curriculum, the Internal Medicine In-Training Examination, and the American Board of Internal Medicine Certifying Examination

• Published in: Journal of graduate medical education 2015-03, Vol.7 (1), p.42-47
• Main Authors: Sisson, Stephen D, Bertram, Amanda, Yeh, Hsin-Chieh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Certification; Clinical Competence; Curriculum; Education, Medical, Graduate; Educational Measurement; Humans; Internal Medicine - education; Original Research; Specialty Boards; United States
• ISSN: 1949-8349; 1949-8357
• DOI: 10.4300/JGME-D-14-00054.1

A core objective of residency education is to facilitate learning, and programs need more curricula and assessment tools with demonstrated validity evidence. We sought to demonstrate concurrent validity between performance on a widely shared, ambulatory curriculum (the Johns Hopkins Internal Medicine Curriculum), the Internal Medicine In-Training Examination (IM-ITE), and the American Board of Internal Medicine Certifying Examination (ABIM-CE). A cohort study of 443 postgraduate year (PGY)-3 residents at 22 academic and community hospital internal medicine residency programs using the curriculum through the Johns Hopkins Internet Learning Center (ILC). Total and percentile rank scores on ILC didactic modules were compared with total and percentile rank scores on the IM-ITE and total scores on the ABIM-CE. The average score on didactic modules was 80.1%; the percentile rank was 53.8. The average IM-ITE score was 64.1% with a percentile rank of 54.8. The average score on the ABIM-CE was 464. Scores on the didactic modules, IM-ITE, and ABIM-CE correlated with each other (P