Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Student Performance and Evaluation Scores

In March 2020, the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine suspended in person clinical teaching due to the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID) pandemic. During this period, virtual cases, telehealth participation, and online cases were incorporated into medical education. We have examined the effects of educational outcomes of third and fourth year students throughout clerkship performance, national standardized test scores, and our local fourth year OSCE examination. We found that USMLE step 2 scores were higher in the COVID-affected group. Patient logs in the COVID-affected group were lower for internal medicine, family medicine, OBGYN, and psychiatry clerkships. Clerkship performance grades in the COVID-affected group were lower for OBGYN and higher for surgery and psychiatry, but not different in other clerkships. USNBME subject specific examination scores in the COVID-affected group were higher for internal medicine, surgery, family medicine and psychiatry, but not different in all other specialties. For the fourth year OSCE, students in the COVID-affected group performed better on note taking and worse on physical examination. Future investigations will be needed to explore how our COVID-affected medical students perform in residency and beyond.