title: Education research: case logs in the assessment of medical students in the neurology outpatient clinic.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Using outpatient neurology clinic case logs completed by medical students on neurology clerkships, we examined the impact of outpatient clinical encounter volume per student on outcomes of knowledge assessed by the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Clinical Neurology Subject Examination and clinical skills assessed by the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from 394 medical students from July 2008 to June 2012, representing 9,791 patient encounters, were analyzed retrospectively. Pearson correlations were calculated examining the relationship between numbers of cases logged per student and performance on the NBME examination. Similarly, correlations between cases logged and performance on the OSCE, as well as on components of the OSCE (history, physical examination, clinical formulation), were evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a correlation between the total number of cases logged per student and NBME examination scores (r = 0.142; p = 0.005) and OSCE scores (r = 0.136; p = 0.007). Total number of cases correlated with the clinical formulation component of the OSCE (r = 0.172; p = 0.001) but not the performance on history or physical examination components.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The volume of cases logged by individual students in the outpatient clinic correlates with performance on measures of knowledge and clinical skill. In measurement of clinical skill, seeing a greater volume of patients in the outpatient clinic is related to improved clinical formulation on the OSCE. These findings may affect methods employed in assessment of medical students, residents, and fellows.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Pediatrics, Section of Pediatric Neurology (D.V.A.), and Department of Neurology (J.R.B., C.A., R.V.L.), University of Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Dara V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Albert
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Brorson
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Amidei
authors.forename: Rimas V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Lukas
mesh_terms: D002641:Chicago; D002982:Clinical Clerkship; D002983:Clinical Competence; D006801:Humans; D008499:Medical Records; D009462:Neurology / Q000193:education*; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital; D012106:Research; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013044:Specialty Boards; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D016526:Workload
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