Content Evaluation of a Neuroscience Course in an Integrated System-Based Curriculum

Basic medical education in the USA must prepare students for two tasks: performing well in clerkships and taking the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1. Ideally, both objectives would be in perfect alignment, with content and resources shared by both. In reality, there is agreement that this alignment is not perfect; but an objective description of the difference has not been systematically carried out for specific disciplines. The objective of the current study is to quantify the content differences between a Neuroscience organ system course at our institution and the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1, with respect to the coverage of content deemed critical to adequately prepare students for their clerkships. Based on curriculum design theory, a master list of basic science content was chosen as the tool to carry out such quantification; and the neuroscience content of the First Aid series for the USMLE Step 1 book was used as a proxy for the content of the Step 1. While both resources covered a majority of the content in the list, the Step 1 preparatory materials covered a smaller fraction of those critical concepts than the course material. In conclusion, the results support a content difference between institutional courses and Step 1, with the latter not including material deemed important for adequate preparation of the students for the clerkships. Our methods also demonstrate the use of a master list to evaluate and compare content coverage within a course.