title: Assessing medical knowledge of emergency medicine residents.
abstract: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires that emergency medicine (EM) residency graduates are competent in the medical knowledge (MK) core competency. EM educators use a number of tools to measure a resident's progress toward this goal; it is not always clear whether these tools provide a valid assessment. A workshop was convened during the 2012 Academic Emergency Medicine consensus conference "Education Research in Emergency Medicine: Opportunities, Challenges, and Strategies for Success" where assessment for each core competency was discussed in detail. This article provides a description of the validity evidence behind current MK assessment tools used in EM and other specialties. Tools in widespread use are discussed, as well as emerging methods that may form valid assessments in the future. Finally, an agenda for future research is proposed to help address gaps in the current understanding of MK assessment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI, USA. med@spandan.com
authors.forename: Nikhil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Goyal
authors.forename: Amer
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aldeen
authors.forename: Katrina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Leone
authors.forename: Jonathan S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Ilgen
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Branzetti
authors.forename: Chad
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kessler
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000592:standards*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000592:standards*; D010820:Physicians