Moving the Needle on our Med-Peds Residency Board Pass Rate

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. IntroductionThe national pass rates for the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) Certification Exams (CE) has declined for combined internal medicine-pediatric (Med-Peds) residents. The lower board pass rate is especially evident in smaller institutions like our own.Methods We instituted a board preparation assistance program where each resident is stratified into a color zone according to their in-training exam (ITE) scores.ResultsThe ITE results of 67 residents from 12 classes were analyzed. 65.7% were graduates of medical schools within the United States (US) and 85.1% were allopathic graduates. Mean scores for USMLE step 1 and step 2 were 213 and 217 respectively. Mean ITE scores increased in each post-graduate year.Our first time ABIMCE board pass remained constant at 73% before the intervention and 75% after the intervention with 84% of residents ever passing the ABIMCE prior to the intervention and 81% after. Our first time ABPCE board pass rate is much improved from 46% to 75% and our overall pass rate improved from 57% to 93% (p=0.0121). On multivariate analyses there was no association between passing either the ABIMCE or ABPCE and any of our measured variables.ConclusionsIt is encouraging that our ITE scores and ABPCE and ABIMCE pass rates are improving although this seems to be due to factors other than our intervention. Other institutions that struggle with poor board pass rates may be interested in our approach.