Correlation of the Emergency Medicine Resident In-Service Examination with the American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine Part I

Introduction: Eligible residents during their fourth postgraduate year (PGY-4) of emergency medicine (EM) residency training who seek specialty board certification in emergency medicine may take the American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine (AOBEM) Part 1 Board Certifying Examination (AOBEM Part 1). All residents enrolled in an osteopathic EM residency training program are required to take the EM Resident In-service Examination (RISE) annually. Our aim was to correlate resident performance on the RISE with performance on the AOBEM Part 1. The study group consisted of osteopathic EM residents in their PGY-4 year of training who took both examinations during that same year. Methods: We examined data from 2009 to 2012 from the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (NBOME).The NBOME grades and performs statistical analyses on both the RISE and the AOBEM Part 1. We used the RISE exam scores, as reported by percentile rank, and compared them to both the score on the AOBEM Part 1 and the dichotomous outcome of passing or failing. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was generated to depict the relationship. Results: We studied a total of 409 residents over the 4-year period. The RISE percentile score correlated strongly with the AOBEM Part 1 score for residents who took both exams in the same year (r = 0.61, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.54 to 0.66). Pass percentage on the AOBEM Part 1 increased by resident percent decile on the RISE from 0% in the bottom decile to 100% in the top decile. ROC analysis also showed that the best cutoff for determining pass or fail on the AOBEM Part 1 was a 65th percentile score on the RISE. Conclusion: We have shown there is a strong correlation between a resident's percentile score on the RISE during their PGY-4 year of residency training and first-time success on the AOBEM Part 1 taken during the same year. This information may be useful for osteopathic EM residents as an indicator as to how well prepared they are for the AOBEM Part 1 Board Certifying Examination.