PS7-07: VARIABILITY OF THE 2018 MEDICAL STUDENT PERFORMANCE EVALUATION BETWEEN U.S. MEDICAL SCHOOLS
Ian M Kratzke, MD, Michael O Meyers, MD; University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill

Purpose: In 2016, the Association of American Medical Colleges published new recommendations for the medical student performance evaluation(MSPE).  We sought to systematically evaluate compliance with these recommendations across institutions. 

Methods: Applications to a single surgery program in the fall of 2018 were used to evaluate the MSPE.  Documents were searched for adherence to AAMC recommended elements as well as inclusion of comparative information between students and presence of categorization of students. Data were analyzed by Chi-square and Student’s t test.   

Results: MSPE were evaluated from 100 schools (42 private).  Geographic locations: 36 South, 24 Midwest, 15 West and 25 Northeast.  96% adhered to the recommended format.  The average MSPE was 7.7 ± 2.2 pages in length (range 4-15). No difference was seen between public (7.4 ± 2.1) and private (8.2 ± 2.4) schools (p=0.08) with the South having slightly shorter letters (6.9 ±  1.8 vs. 7.9-8.9 pages).  73% included a professionalism assessment. 91% included comparative information about clerkship performance, although only 78% included that in body of the MSPE as recommended. Only 62% included information about how clerkship grades were derived. 59% gave specific summary evaluation criteria and categorization of students (64% public vs 52% private; p=0.31), while 41% did not.  Of the 41 schools that did not, 12 (29%) gave a class rank or other form of academic ranking. 29% gave no comparative ranking of any kind. Of those with specific categorization tiers, all but two had either 4 or 5 tiers.  Mean % of students in the respective tiers was:  23% top tier (range 2-72%), 28% 2nd tier (range 8-69%) and 30% 3rd tier (range 1-70%).   No significant differences existed between public and private schools for any area.  No significant regional differences existed in proportion of schools adhering to any criteria, although the South (50%) and NE (52%) schools were less being likely to provide summative categories than West (80%) and MW (67%) schools. (p=0.06)

Conclusions: Information provided in the MSPE is variable between schools and many do not provide data on professionalism and how grades are derived.  Only ~two-thirds of schools provide comparative ranking of any kind.