Correlation of the NBME Advanced Clinical Examination in EM and the National EM M4 exams

Abstract

IntroductionSince 2011 two online, validated exams for fourth-year emergency medicine (EM) students have been available (National EM M4 Exams). In 2013 the National Board of Medical Examiners offered the Advanced Clinical Examination in Emergency Medicine (EM-ACE). All of these exams are now in widespread use; however, there are no data on how they correlate. This study evaluated the correlation between the EM-ACE exam and the National EM M4 Exams.MethodsFrom May 2013 to April 2014 the EM-ACE and one version of the EM M4 exam were administered sequentially to fourth-year EM students at five U.S. medical schools. Data collected included institution, gross and scaled scores and version of the EM M4 exam. We performed Pearson’s correlation and random effects linear regression.Results303 students took the EM-ACE and versions 1 (V1) or 2 (V2) of the EM M4 exams (279 and 24, respectively). The mean percent correct for the exams were as follows: EM-ACE 74.8 (SD-8.83), V1 83.0 (SD-6.41), V2 78.5 (SD-7.70). Pearson’s correlation coefficient for the V1/EM-ACE was 0.51 (0.42 scaled) and for the V2/EM-ACE was 0.59 (0.41 scaled). The coefficient of determination for V1/EM-ACE was 0.72 and for V2/EM-ACE = 0.71 (0.86 and 0.49 for scaled scores). The R-squared values were 0.25 and 0.30 (0.18 and 0.13, scaled), respectively. There was significant cluster effect by institution.ConclusionThere was moderate positive correlation of student scores on the EM-ACE exam and the National EM M4 Exams.

Critical Appraisal of Emergency Medicine Educational Research: The Best Publications of 2015

“…A total of 434 papers and abstracts satisfied the search criteria, and 61 papers met the inclusion criteria . The authors scored these 61 manuscripts, and the 10 highest scoring quantitative and two qualitative articles are reviewed below, in alphabetical order by first author's last name.…”

“…There were 10 papers (16%) that employed survey methodology but none met the criteria for a highlighted article . The remaining 36 papers (59%) were observational studies and accounted for 50% of the highlighted articles . It is interesting to note that each study design had representation in meeting the validated criteria to be a highlighted article, with the exception, this year, of survey methodology.…”

“…The study populations included medical students (36%), residents (54%), and a variety of others (attending physicians, nurses, interprofessional teams, fellows, midlevel providers, paramedics, validity evidence, and department flow).…”

“…Studies that are conducted at multiple institutions are important since they demonstrate that the intervention is effective in a variety of settings and may be more generalizable to others who wish to implement a similar program. This year, 10 (16%) studies were conducted at more than two sites . Researchers in EM can be more confident in the value of their interventions if they produce excellent results when applied to many different types of learners and taught by a variety of instructors.…”

Medical Student Performance on the National Board of Medical Examiners Emergency Medicine Advanced Clinical Examination and the National Emergency Medicine M4 Exams

“…In order to correlate EM-ACE performance to exams that already had established validity, all fourth-year medical students participating in a fourth-year EM rotation at the study sites were administered both the NBME EM-ACE and one version of an EM M4 examination. 6 The dataset used for this study was derived from the data collected for the EM-ACE National EM M4 correlation project.…”