Learning to Read: Successful Program-Based Remediation Using the Surgical Council on Resident Education (SCORE)...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Curriculum Development

Background:

• The Surgical Council on Resident Education (SCORE) curriculum aligns with American Board of Surgery (ABS) objectives.
• A surgical residency program adopted SCORE in 2015 due to suboptimal ABS In-Training Examination (ABSITE) performance and low first-time pass rates on ABS Qualifying Exam (QE) and Certifying Exam (CE).

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the association between the utilization of the SCORE curriculum and improvements in resident performance on the ABSITE and ABS board examinations.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective review of surgery residents' SCORE usage metrics (mean total minutes, total visits) and ABSITE percentiles from 2015 to 2019.
• Analysis of first-time pass rates for the ABS QE and CE from 2013 to 2019.
• Statistical analysis included chi-square and linear regression with a 95% confidence level.

Main Results:

• Significant increases were observed in residents' total SCORE minutes, total visits, and ABSITE percentiles annually.
• First-time pass rates for the combined ABS QE and CE significantly increased from 70.8% (2013-2015) to 93.9% (2016-2019) (p=0.018).

Conclusions:

• Longitudinal engagement with the SCORE curriculum is linked to enhanced programmatic outcomes.
• The findings suggest that increased SCORE curriculum use positively impacts resident performance on standardized surgical assessments.