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Mark A Albanese

Publications and source records attributed to Mark A Albanese.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Statistical criteria for setting thresholds in medical school admissions.

In 2001, Dr Jordan Cohen, President of the AAMC, called for medical schools to consider using an Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) threshold to eliminate high-risk applicants from consideration and then to use non-academic qualifications for further consideration. This approach would seem to be consistent with the recent Supreme Court ruling on the University of Michigan admissions cases. Research to support a threshold approach has been reported in many different ways, making comparability problematic. This study examines an assortment of statistical indices that have been used to determine thresholds in undergraduate science grade point average (USGPA) and MCAT sub-scores and total sum and compares them in terms of their sensitivity and specificity for determining Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE Step 1) first time failure. Data for medical school entering classes of 1992-1998 (N=752) from a large Midwestern medical school are used to determine the set of statistics that provide the most useful information for this purpose. The results support plots of risk differences, odds-ratios, sensitivity and specificity for setting cut-scores.

Education, Premedical↗
PubMed2005

A comparison of statistical criteria for setting optimally discriminating MCAT and GPA thresholds in medical school admissions.

BACKGROUND: Using Medical College Admission Test-grade point average (MCAT-GPA) scores as a threshold has the potential to address issues raised in recent Supreme Court cases, but it introduces complicated methodological issues for medical school admissions. PURPOSE: To assess various statistical indexes to determine optimally discriminating thresholds for MCAT-GPA scores. METHODS: Entering classes from 1992 through 1998 (N = 752) are used to develop guidelines for cut scores that optimize discrimination between students who pass and do not pass the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 on the first attempt. RESULTS: Risk differences, odds ratios, sensitivity, and specificity discriminated best for setting thresholds. Compensatory versus noncompensatory procedures both accounted for 54% of Step 1 failures, but demanded different performance requirements (noncompensatory MCAT-biological sciences = 8, physical sciences = 7, verbal reasoning = 7--sum of scores = 22; compensatory MCAT total = 24). CONCLUSIONS: Rational and defensible intellectual achievement thresholds that are likely to comply with recent Supreme Court decisions can be set from MCAT scores and GPAs.

College Admission Test↗
PubMed2004

Patient, faculty, and self-assessment of radiology resident performance: a 360-degree method of measuring professionalism and interpersonal/communication skills.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: To develop and test the reliability, validity, and feasibility of a 360-degree evaluation to measure radiology resident competence in professionalism and interpersonal/communication skills. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An evaluation form with 10 Likert-type items related to professionalism and interpersonal/communication skills was completed by a resident, supervising radiologist and patient after resident-patient interactions related to breast biopsy procedures. Residents were also evaluated by faculty, using an end-of-rotation global rating form. Residents, faculty, and technologists were queried regarding their reaction to the assessments after a 7-month period. RESULTS: Fifty-six complete 360-degree data sets (range, 2-14 per resident) and seven rotational evaluations for seven residents were analyzed and compared. Internal consistency reliability estimates were 0.85, 0.86, and 0.87 for resident, patient, and faculty 360-degree evaluations, respectively. Correlations between resident-versus-patient, resident-versus-faculty, and patient-versus-faculty ratings for the 56 interactions were -0.06 (P =.64), 0.31 (P <.02), and 0.45 (P <.0006), respectively. Pearson correlation coefficients approached significant correlation (0.70) between the faculty global rating and patient 360-degree scores (P =.08) but not with faculty 360-degree scores. Residents and faculty felt that completing the 360-degree forms was easy, but the requirement for faculty presence during the consent process was burdensome. CONCLUSION: Results from this pilot study suggest that self, faculty, and patient evaluations of resident performance constitutes a valid and reliable assessment of resident competence. Additional data are needed to determine whether the 360-degree assessment should be incorporated into residency programs and how frequently the assessment should be performed. Requiring only a specified number of assessments per rotation would make the process less burdensome for residents and faculty.

Breast↗
PubMed2003

Assessing personal qualities in medical school admissions.

The authors analyze the challenges to using academic measures (MCAT scores and GPAs) as thresholds for admissions and, for applicants exceeding the threshold, using personal qualities for admission decisions; review the literature on using the medical school interview and other admission data to assess personal qualities of applicants; identify challenges of developing better methods of assessing personal qualities; and propose a unified system for assessment. The authors discuss three challenges to using the threshold approach: institutional self-interest, inertia, and philosophical and historical factors. Institutional self-interest arises from the potential for admitting students with lower academic credentials, which could negatively influence indicators used to rank medical schools. Inertia can make introducing a new system complex. Philosophical and historical factors are those that tend to value maximizing academic measures. The literature identifies up to 87 different personal qualities relevant to the practice of medicine, and selecting the most salient of these that can be practically measured is a challenging task. The challenges to developing better personal quality measures include selecting and operationally defining the most important qualities, measuring the qualities in a cost-effective manner, and overcoming "cunning" adversaries who, with the incentive and resourcefulness, can potentially invalidate such measures. The authors discuss potential methods of measuring personal qualities and propose a unified system of assessment that would pool resources from certification and recertification efforts to develop competencies across the continuum with a dynamic, integrated approach to assessment.

College Admission Test↗
PubMed2003

Matriculating student perceptions of changes to the admissions interview process at the University of Wisconsin Medical School: a prospective, controlled comparison.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess whether changes in the admissions interview process improved matriculating students' perceptions of the quality of the admissions interview process. METHODS: We surveyed matriculating medical students for a 3-year period. Over this period, the admissions process and procedures went through a review and then a re-engineering. The survey provided 1 year of baseline data (while the review was undertaken), 1 year of data as recommendations from the review were progressively implemented, and 1 year of data on full implementation of recommendations. RESULTS: From baseline to full implementation, there were statistically significant increases (p < .05) in the percentage of matriculating students who found the University of Wisconsin (UW) Medical School interview process useful (31% increase), thorough (50% increase) and better than that of other medical schools (28% increase). There was also a statistically significant decrease in the percentage of matriculating students who found the UW Medical School interview process to be less impressive than other schools (29% decrease) and in need of improvement (45% decrease). EDUCATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE/CONCLUSIONS: Changes made in the UW Medical School's interview process yielded significant increases in perceptions of the quality of the experience by matriculating students. Since interviewing is expensive for both the institution and the applicant, it should have a clear purpose. The manner in which interviews are conducted should be critically reviewed periodically to ensure that the interview continues to meet its intended needs.

Humans↗
PubMed2002

Teaching radiology to medical students: an integrated approach.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: This study assessed medical student satisfaction with radiology lectures integrated into the 3rd-year student internal medicine clerkship, compared with faculty lectures in an independent radiology course, and investigated the effects of integrated instruction on departmental compensation from the medical school. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Students' evaluations were compared, with two-way analysis of variance, for faculty who presented lectures in an integrated radiology course and faculty who presented lectures in an independent radiology course from July 1998 to June 2001. Radiology department compensation from the medical school for each course was computed per contact hour. RESULTS: For the integrated course (663 evaluations), the mean overall faculty rating was 1.44 (1 = excellent, 5 = poor), lower (more positive) than the mean overall rating of 1.53 for the independent course (518 evaluations) (P = .037). The interaction between type of instruction and topic was significant only for chest and musculoskeletal imaging, which were rated more positive and less positive in the integrated course, respectively (P < .001). For the integrated course the radiology department received $762 per lecture hour, and for the independent course it received $296 per contact hour (all types) and $1,183 per lecture hour. CONCLUSION: Student ratings of faculty lectures in an integrated course were excellent and comparable to those in an independent radiology course. The medical school differentiated the efforts of radiology faculty in the two courses through its budgeting process, awarding greater compensation per contact hour for participation in the integrated course. If only lecture hours are considered, compensation was greater for the independent course.

Analysis of Variance↗