Impact of a focused review course in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery on test performance

Abstract

Background: The Core Curriculum Review Course in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery is a 4-day educational program consisting of 77 didactic lectures that provide a comprehensive review of the material required for surgeons preparing for the American Board of Thoracic Surgery competency written examination. The lectures are supplemented with a written syllabus and interactive audience participation system. We sought to determine whether participation in this course could improve participants' performance on a cardiothoracic subject-based test.

Methods: Sixty-five participants attended the 2018 course. Before beginning the course lectures, a multiple-choice pretest consisting of 77 questions was administered via mobile application to gauge the participants' baseline knowledge. A second multiple-choice posttest was made available beginning 7 weeks after the course, also by mobile application.

Results: Twenty-nine participants completed both the pretest and the posttest. The median pretest score was 47% (36 of 77 correct answers). The median posttest score was 61% (47 of 77 correct answers), representing an increase of 14%. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test indicated a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores (z = -4.36; P = .00). Overall, 25 participants (86%) improved their posttest score.

Conclusions: The core curriculum review course was successful in improving participants' performance on the course tests, indicating that the participants' fund of knowledge was likely increased by attendance at the program. Additional strategies should be considered to address particular areas of study both for individual participants and for residents currently in training.

Keywords: ABTS, American Board of Thoracic Surgery; education; residency; training.

Graphical abstract

Participant scores improved across all content areas.

Figure 1

Q-Q plot for pretest. The presence of nonnormal data and outliers in the dataset supports the use of a nonparametric test to assess differences between the pretest and posttest data. PREPER, Pretest performance.

Figure 2

Q-Q plot for posttest. There are no outliers in this dataset, but there are nonnormal data, supporting the use of a nonparametric test to assess the differences between the pretest and posttest data. POSTPER, Posttest performance.

Figure 3

Comparison of pretest and posttest scores by subject category. All categories demonstrate improvement in posttest scores, with the most marked improvements seen in the cardiovascular disease and esophageal disease categories.

Video 1

Summary of study findings. Video available at: https://www.jtcvs.org/article/S2666-2736(21)00180-7/fulltext.

Figure 4

Methods, results, and implications of the study. Methods include administration of the pretest, attendance at the review course, administration of the posttest, and score analysis. Key results are an overall 14% improvement in mean score, a statistically significant change. Implications are that attendance at the review course increases the overall fund of knowledge, improves standardized test scores, and can help identify areas of focus for residency training programs.