Committee Update: NBME EM Advanced Clinical Examination Task Force

Committee Update: NBME EM Advanced Clinical Examination Task Force

NBME EM Advanced Clinical Examination Task Force

The NBME EM Advanced Clinical Examination Task Force was formed in 2011. The task force is made up of CDEM members who are current or previous clerkship directors along with NBME staff. The task force was charged with the development of an EM Advanced Clinical Examination (ACE). The task force has been responsible for developing the test blueprint, finalizing the test content and assigning appropriate weights to specific categories of disease across various physician tasks. Task Force members have also been responsible for generating new items to fill gaps in the test question pool. To date, members have written and reviewed many hundreds of questions. The EM ACE was first made available in April 2013. Although the test is designed as a knowledge base assessment for students completing a required 4th year clerkship in EM, the test is also taken by many 3rd year students. In the 2015-2016 academic year, almost 5,000 medical students across the country completed the examination (4th year students; n-3,752, 3rd year students; n-995).

This past year, the task force, working with the NBME conducted a web-based study to establish grading guidelines for the EM ACE. Medical school faculty representing 27 different institutions participated in this study. The task force has published multiple abstracts regarding the EM ACE examination. We continue to meet on an annual basis and are currently collaborating with the NBME on a number of research initiatives.

1. Miller ES, Wald DA, Hiller K, Askew K, Fisher J, Franzen D, Heitz C, Lawson L, Lotfipour S, McEwen J, Ross L, Baker G, Morales A, Butler A. Initial Usage of the National Board of Medical Examiners Emergency Medicine Advanced Clinical Examination.  Acad Emerg Med. 2015;22:s14.
2. Miller ES, Wald DA, Hiller K, Askew K, Fisher J, Franzen D, Heitz C, Lawson L,    Lotfipour S, McEwen J, Ross L, Baker G, Morales A, Butler A. National Board of Emergency Medicine Advanced Clinical Examination 2014 Post-Examination Survey Results. Acad Emerg Med. 2015;22:s109.
3. Fisher J, Wald DA, Orr N, et al.  National Board of Medical Examiners’ Development of an Advanced Clinical Examination in Emergency Medicine.  Ann Emerg Med. 2012;60:s190-191.
4. Ross L, Wald DA, Miller ES, et al.  Developing Grading Guidelines for the NBME® Emergency Medicine Advanced Clinical Examination.  Accepted for publication West J Emerg Med 2017.

David A. Wald, DO

On behalf of the NBME EM ACE Task Force

• David Wald, Chair
• David A. Wald
• Doug Franzen
• Jonathan Fisher
• Kathy Hiller
• Emily Miller
• Luan Lawson
• Kim Askew
• Jules Jung
• Cory Heitz

• Shahram Lotfipour
• Jill McEwen