Gender Differences in Milestone Ratings and Medical Knowledge Examination Scores among Internal Medicine Residents

Abstract

Purpose To examine whether there are group differences in milestone ratings submitted by program directors working with clinical competency committees (CCCs) based on gender for internal medicine (IM) residents and whether women and men rated similarly on milestones perform comparably on subsequent in-training and certification examinations. Method This national retrospective study examined end-of-year medical knowledge (MK) and patient care (PC) milestone ratings and IM In-Training Examination (IM-ITE) and IM Certification Examination (IM-CE) scores for 2 cohorts (2014-2017, 2015-2018) of U.S. IM residents at ACGME-accredited programs. It included 20,098/21,440 (94%) residents, with 9,424 women (47%) and 10,674 men (53%). Descriptive statistics and differential prediction techniques using hierarchical linear models were performed. Results For MK milestone ratings in PGY-1, men and women showed no statistical difference at a significance level of.01 (P =.02). In PGY-2 and PGY-3, men received statistically higher average MK ratings than women (P =.002 and P