Assessment of a surgical pattern recognition examination

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Cognitive Science in Medicine
• Surgical Diagnostics

Background:

• Expert diagnosticians utilize pattern recognition for clinical problem-solving.
• Developing diagnostic recognition of common surgical issues is vital for undergraduate surgical training.
• A surgical pattern recognition examination (PAT) was created to evaluate diagnostic recognition in clerkship students.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel examination assessing surgical diagnostic ability.
• To evaluate the reliability and validity of the surgical PAT for third-year medical students.

Main Methods:

• Surgical faculty identified 18 diagnoses for 20 presenting complaints.
• Distinctive patient descriptions were created for each diagnosis.
• A 200-item examination was developed covering 20 presenting complaints.

Main Results:

• The PAT was administered to 77 clerkship students, with scores ranging from 33% to 90% (mean 65%).
• PAT scores demonstrated a high correlation with National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Surgery Subject Examination (SSE) scores.
• Senior residents outperformed junior residents on the PAT, and performance improved with clinical experience.

Conclusions:

• The surgical PAT is a reliable and valid assessment tool for diagnostic ability.
• The examination effectively measures diagnostic recognition skills in third-year medical students.
• The PAT contributes to improving undergraduate surgical education by assessing key diagnostic competencies.