Med School, Early Residency Outcomes Similar for Three-, Four-Year M.D. Grads

TUESDAY, Oct. 15, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Accelerated three-year M.D. (3YMD) graduates have similar performance in medical school and early residency as four-year M.D. (4YMD) graduates, according to a study published online Oct. 15 in Academic Medicine.

Nivedha Satyamoorthi, from the New York University Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues compared learning and performance outcomes during medical school and residency for the first seven years of graduates from the accelerated 3YMD pathway, commenced in 2013, with 4YMD graduates.

The researchers found that in both medical school and residency, 3YMD students performed similarly to 4YMD students. 3YMD students were significantly older, by a small amount, and had higher multiple mini-interview scores. 3YMD students had higher performance on preclerkship exams and lower performance on U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) steps 1 and 2 (5.6 and 8.3 points, respectively) and on the physical examination section of the Comprehensive Clinical Skills Exam. Comparable USMLE step 3 scores and team assessments were seen in residency, as were comparable clinical reasoning assessment and milestone evaluation by the program director in the internal medicine residency program. 3YMD interns showed significantly higher performance on milestone assessment when compared with all other interns in the internal medicine program.

“[These data diminish] concerns regarding the competency of 3YMD graduates,” the authors write. “We will continue to assess these students and report on their outcomes into practice to further prove the success of an accelerated 3YMD pathway.”

Abstract/Full Text