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Home Research Research Library COVID-19 Impact on Family Medicine Residents Exam Performance COVID-19 Impact on Family Medicine Residents Exam Performance 2024 Author(s) Wang, Ting, O’Neill, Thomas R, Peterson, Lars E, and Newton, Warren P Topic(s) Education & Training, and Family Medicine Certification Keyword(s) Cognitive Expertise, and Graduate Medical Education Volume Family Medicine Source Family Medicine Background and Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic began interrupting family medicine residency training in spring 2020. While a decline in scores on the American Board of Family Medicine In-Training Examination (ITE) has been observed, whether this decline has translated into the high-stakes Family Medicine Certification Examination (FMCE) is unclear. The goal of this study was to systematically assess the magnitude of COVID-19 impact on medical knowledge acquisition during residency, as measured by the ITE and FMCE. Methods: A total of 19,101 initial certification candidates from 2017 to 2022 were included in this study. Annual ITE scores and FMCE scores were reported on the same scale (200–800) and served as the outcome measure. We conducted multilevel regression analysis to determine ITE score growth and FMCE scores compared to cohorts prior to COVID-19. Results: During COVID-19, the increase in ITE scores from postgraduate year 2 (PGY-2) to PGY-3 was 25.5 points less, representing a 57.6% relative decrease; and from PGY-3 ITE to FMCE, it was 8.6 points less, a 12.7% relative decrease, compared with cohorts prior to COVID-19. FMCE scores were 6.6 points less during COVID-19, representing a 1.2% relative decline from the average FMCE score prior to COVID-19. Conclusions: This study found nonsubstantive COVID-19 impact on FMCE scores, but a considerable knowledge acquisition decline during residency, especially during the PGY-2 to PGY-3 period. While COVID-19 impacted learning, our findings indicated that residencies were largely able to remediate knowledge deficits before residents took the FMCE. ABFM Research Read all 2024 Policy Briefs With Personality: How to Innovatively Disseminate Evidence for Advocacy Go to Policy Briefs With Personality: How to Innovatively Disseminate Evidence for Advocacy 2025 Blueprinting the Future: Automatic Item Categorisation using Hierarchical Zero-Shot and Few-Shot Classifiers Go to Blueprinting the Future: Automatic Item Categorisation using Hierarchical Zero-Shot and Few-Shot Classifiers 2012 Engagement of family physicians in maintenance of certification remains high Go to Engagement of family physicians in maintenance of certification remains high 2014 Medical specialty boards can help measure graduate medical education outcomes Go to Medical specialty boards can help measure graduate medical education outcomes
Author(s) Wang, Ting, O’Neill, Thomas R, Peterson, Lars E, and Newton, Warren P Topic(s) Education & Training, and Family Medicine Certification Keyword(s) Cognitive Expertise, and Graduate Medical Education Volume Family Medicine Source Family Medicine
ABFM Research Read all 2024 Policy Briefs With Personality: How to Innovatively Disseminate Evidence for Advocacy Go to Policy Briefs With Personality: How to Innovatively Disseminate Evidence for Advocacy 2025 Blueprinting the Future: Automatic Item Categorisation using Hierarchical Zero-Shot and Few-Shot Classifiers Go to Blueprinting the Future: Automatic Item Categorisation using Hierarchical Zero-Shot and Few-Shot Classifiers 2012 Engagement of family physicians in maintenance of certification remains high Go to Engagement of family physicians in maintenance of certification remains high 2014 Medical specialty boards can help measure graduate medical education outcomes Go to Medical specialty boards can help measure graduate medical education outcomes
2024 Policy Briefs With Personality: How to Innovatively Disseminate Evidence for Advocacy Go to Policy Briefs With Personality: How to Innovatively Disseminate Evidence for Advocacy
2025 Blueprinting the Future: Automatic Item Categorisation using Hierarchical Zero-Shot and Few-Shot Classifiers Go to Blueprinting the Future: Automatic Item Categorisation using Hierarchical Zero-Shot and Few-Shot Classifiers
2012 Engagement of family physicians in maintenance of certification remains high Go to Engagement of family physicians in maintenance of certification remains high
2014 Medical specialty boards can help measure graduate medical education outcomes Go to Medical specialty boards can help measure graduate medical education outcomes