Improvement of oncology education at the University of Washington School of Medicine, 1984-1988.

In 1984, performance on the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) examination by medical students from the University of Washington School of Medicine was significantly lower in clinical oncology, pathology, surgery, and oncology-related subjects than was their performance in other subjects (p = .002) and inversely proportional to the degree of oncology-relatedness of the material examined. Moreover, their performance on oncology-related questions was significantly lower than the national average (p less than .001). The curriculum committee thus initiated a review of the oncology content in the curriculum of the school of medicine and implemented a two-year plan in 1984-1986 to improve the perceived deficiencies. During the year the two-year intervention was completed, reevaluation demonstrated evidence that substantial improvement had occurred in oncology performance by the students, relative to their performance in non-oncology subjects (p less than .05) and to the national average. Performance on the non-oncology items was unchanged. The authors conclude that oncology education and performance of the students was significantly improved within two years, after instituting the short-term plan to enhance cancer education in the medical school, the improvement in oncology did not occur at the expense of a reduction in performance in non-oncology subjects, and the improved performance in oncology by the students enhanced their overall performance on the NBME examination.