Literature

Curbside Consults Podcast

By Mridula Nadamuni, MD

Published April 17, 2024

In this episode of Curbside Consults, Dr. Andrew Dwyer, Director of Psychometrics at the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP), joins Mridula Nadamuni, former editorial fellow, to discuss the process of creating and administering pediatric board examinations. Andy Dwyer holds a PhD in educational psychology and an MS in statistics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is responsible for the planning and oversight of psychometric activities including practice analysis, standard setting, scoring, and score reporting. He is also actively involved in research efforts consistent with the goals of the ABP, focusing largely on exam design and validation, longitudinal assessment, score reporting, test security, and small sample assessment.

01:00 – Introduction
01:30 – What is a psychometrician?
02:20 – Who writes the Pediatric Board Exam questions?
02:45 – What content makes it to the test?
04:20 – How does the ABP ensure the test is fair?
05:15 – How long does it take to write the exam?
05:45 – Are there experimental questions?
07:20 – Why does it take so long to get my scores back?
08:05 – How is the passing score determined?
10:00 – How is the in-training exam used by the ABP?
11:35 – MOCA-Peds
13:44 – Self-Assessment opportunities
14:10 – Mitigating bias in examination
15:42 – Outro

Reference:
1. Identifying and Addressing Item Bias in the General Pediatrics Certifying Examination. Pediatrics 2023.

The Curbside Consults series complements the foundational information in Rotation Prep by taking a deep dive into key clinical topics with expert clinicians and educators. These podcasts explore and critique the evidence behind clinical practice and break down statistical concepts for the busy clinical trainee.

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Andrew Dwyer, PhD, MS, is Director of Psychometrics at the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP). Andy Dwyer holds a PhD in educational psychology and an MS in statistics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is responsible for the planning and oversight of psychometric activities including practice analysis, standard setting, scoring, and score reporting. He is also actively involved in research efforts consistent with the goals of the ABP, focusing largely on exam design and validation, longitudinal assessment, score reporting, test security, and small sample assessment.
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Mridula Nadamuni, MD, was a 2022–2023 NEJM Editorial Fellow. She completed her internal medicine/pediatrics residency and chief residency at UT Southwestern Medical Center.