Attending Reviews of Residents Correlate with ABR Qualifying (Core) Examination Failure

Since the American Board of Radiology (ABR) instituted the new system of board certification, there has been much discussion as to the test's validity. We decided to evaluate if subjective evaluation of resident performance correlated with ABR Qualifying (Core) Examination performance at this single institution.

Data regarding resident evaluation scores by attending physicians and passage of board examinations was gathered regarding residents who had taken the ABR Qualifying (Core) Examination from 2013 through 2019 for a total of 42 residents, eight of whom failed the ABR Qualifying (Core) Examination on their first attempt. A univariate analysis comparing scores with resident passage or failure of the ABR Qualifying (Core) Examination on the first attempt and analyses correcting for class year only and class year and number of evaluations was performed.

The non-weighted average evaluation score of years 1, 2, and 3 was 80.24% for those who failed the ABR Qualifying (Core) Examination and 83.71 % for those who passed. On univariate analysis along with analyses correcting for class year only and class year along with number of evaluations, there was a statistically significant correlation with decreased evaluation scores averaged over the three years of residency and failure of the ABR Qualifying (Core) Examination (p = 0.0102, p = 0.003, and p = 0.0043). The statistical significance held for the average numerical score in each individual year of training in all analyses except for year 1 of the univariate analysis (p = 0.1264).

At the studied institution, there was a statistically significant correlation between lower subjective faculty evaluation scores and failure of the ABR Qualifying (Core) Examination.