Standardized video interviews do not correlate to United States medical licensing examination step 1 and step 2 scores

© 2019 Egan et al. Introduction: In 2017, the Standardized Video Interview (SVI) was required for applicants to emergency medicine (EM). The SVI contains six questions highlighting professionalism and interpersonal communication skills. The responses were scored (6-30). As it is a new metric, no information is available on correlation between SVI scores and other application data. This study was to determine if a correlation exists between applicants\u27 United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and SVI scores. We hypothesized that numeric USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) scores would not correlate with the SVI score, but that performance on the Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS) portion may correlate with the SVI since both test communication skills. Methods: Nine EM residency sites participated in the study with data exported from an Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS ® ) report. All applicants with both SVI and USMLE scores were included. We studied the correlation between SVI scores and USMLE scores. Predetermined subgroup analysis was performed based on applicants\u27 USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK scores as follows: (= 200, 201-220, 221-240, 241-260, \u3e260). We used linear regression, the Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test for statistical analyses. Results: 1,325 applicants had both Step 1 and SVI scores available, with no correlation between the overall scores (p=0.58) and no correlation between the scores across all Step 1 score ranges, (p=0.29). Both Step 2 CK and SVI scores were available for 1,275 applicants, with no correlation between the overall scores (p=0.56) and no correlation across all ranges, (p=0.10). The USMLE Step 2 CS and SVI scores were available for 1,000 applicants. Four applicants failed the CS test without any correlation to the SVI score (p=0.08). Conclusion: We found no correlation between the scores on any portion of the USMLE and the SVI; therefore, the SVI provides new information to application screeners

How well does the standardized video interview score correlate with traditional interview performance?

© 2019 Chung et al. Introduction: In 2017, all medical students applying for residency in emergency medicine (EM) were required to participate in the Standardized Video Interview (SVI). The SVI is a video-recorded, unidirectional interview consisting of six questions designed to assess interpersonal and communication skills and professionalism. It is unclear whether this simulated interview is an accurate representation of an applicant’s competencies that are often evaluated during the in-person interview. Objective: The goal of this study was to determine whether the SVI score correlates with a traditional in-person interview score. Methods: Six geographically and demographically diverse EM residency programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education participated in this prospective observational study. Common demographic data for each applicant were obtained through an Electronic Residency Application Service export function prior to the start of any scheduled traditional interviews (TI). On each TI day, one interviewer blinded to all applicant data, including SVI score, rated the applicant on a five-point scale. A convenience sample of applicants was enrolled based on random assignment to the blinded interviewer. We studied the correlation between SVI score and TI score. Results: We included 321 unique applicants in the final analysis. Linear regression analysis of the SVI score against the TI score demonstrated a small positive linear correlation with an r coefficient of +0.13 (p=0.02). This correlation remained across all SVI score subgroups (p = 0.03). Conclusion: Our study suggests that there is a small positive linear correlation between the SVI score and performance during the TI

Subjective ratings of whole-body vibration for single- and multi-axis motion

Real-world whole-body vibration exposures comprise motion in fore-aft, lateral and vertical directions simultaneously. There can also be components of roll, pitch and yaw. If evaluating vibration with respect to human response, most investigators will use methods defined in ISO 2631-1. This uses frequency weightings that were originally derived from laboratory studies of the subjective responses to vibration in one direction at a time. This paper describes experiments carried out using a 6 degree-of-freedom vibration simulator to validate the applicability of ISO 2631-1 in multi-axis environments. 15 subjects were exposed to 87 stimuli comprising single-axis, dual-axis and tri-axial random vibration, to which they were required to produce subjective ratings. It is shown that in this study the root-sum-of-squares method of summation of subjective ratings in individual axes was an adequate technique for prediction of subjective rating of multiaxis vibration. Better agreement between objective and subjective measures of vibration was obtained for unweighted vibration than for frequency weighted signals. The best agreement for this study was achieved when axis multiplying factors were set at 2.2 and 2.4 for x- and y-axis vibration respectively. Different values could be appropriate for other postures, seats, and vibration conditions and should be determined in future studies