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Single Institution Analysis of Anesthesiology Residents' Online Question Bank Utilization and In-Training Exam
Blaire Beers-Mulroy1, Travis S Barker1, Janelle M Richard1
1The following authors are in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME. is a resident physician; was a resident physician and is a cardiac anesthesia fellow with the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA; is Lead Research Coordinator; The following authors are in the Division of Anesthesiology, Spectrum Healthcare Partners, South Portland, ME. and are both attending anesthesiologists who are also affiliated with the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME. They are also both assistant professors of anesthesiology with the Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA. is a research navigator at the MaineHealth Institute for Research, Scarborough, ME.
Anesthesiology residents who correctly answered more online question bank questions achieved higher scores on the American Board of Anesthesiology In-Training Examination (ITE). This suggests question bank accuracy can predict ITE performance.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Anesthesiology
- Assessment
Background:
- The American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) In-Training Examination (ITE) is crucial for residency education and certification preparation.
- Online question banks are widely used study tools, but their impact on ITE performance is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between anesthesiology residents' question bank usage and their performance on the ABA ITE.
- To determine if question bank metrics can predict ITE scores.
Main Methods:
- A retrospective review of data from July 2015 to July 2023 at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center.
- Analysis of question bank usage (total questions, tutor mode usage, percentage correct) and ITE scores for postgraduate years 2-4 residents.
- Spearman correlation was used to assess relationships between question bank metrics and ITE performance.
Main Results:
- A significant positive association was found between the percentage of questions answered correctly in question banks and ITE scaled scores and national percentile rankings for all postgraduate years studied (PGY 2-4).
- Correlation coefficients ranged from ρ = .48 to ρ = .71 (p < .001), indicating a strong relationship.
Conclusions:
- Higher accuracy in online question banks is positively associated with better performance on the ABA ITE for anesthesiology residents.
- The percentage of correctly answered questions in online question banks may serve as a valuable predictive marker for ITE success.
