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Student Outcomes in a Summer Pipeline Anatomical Sciences Course as a Predictor of Performance in Gross Anatomy in a Condensed Medical School Curriculum

Increasing numbers of underrepresented minorities in medicine (URMM) has been a challenge for medical schools. URMM include African‐Americans or blacks, Latinos and Native Americans. Pipeline programs can help with underrepresentation by providing healthcare exposure, strengthening academic preparedness and inspiring learners to pursue careers in medicine and research. The Summer Program for Future Doctors (SPFD) at Brody School of Medicine (BSOM) is an 8‐week, intensive summer pipeline program that combines foundational sciences, physician shadowing, and clinical skills experiences for undergraduate juniors and seniors, as well as post‐baccalaureate students with a goal to attend medical school. Traditionally, students who perform in the upper quartile of the SPFD cohort improve their probability of admission into BSOM. Anecdotally, a strong SPFD performance in anatomy correlates with medical school performance. This correlation is more intriguing as many medical schools transition to condensed pre‐clinical curricula, and the need to gauge and monitor student progress and success rises. The aims of this research were to answer two questions: 1. Does performance in SPFD anatomical sciences correlate with outcomes in the first‐year medical gross anatomy and embryology (GAE) course?; 2. In GAE, do SPFD students have higher final course averages than BSOM cohort peers who did not participate in the program? The years selected for this study correspond to a curricular change at BSOM from a traditional pre‐clinical 24‐month calendar to an 18‐month condensed phase. De‐identified student performance data from 2016 through 2018 were grouped by participation (SPFD‐P; total n=32) or non‐participation (SPFD‐NP; total n= 135). Final course averages (%) from SPFD anatomical sciences and GAE were compared between the two groups and within the individual cohorts. Data analysis indicates a significant positive correlation between student performance in SPFD anatomical sciences and GAE for the years combined (Pearson's correlation coefficient; p<0.05). Data also showed significantly higher GAE final averages for SPFD‐P when compared to SPFD‐NP (t‐test; p<0.05). Collectively, these results suggest that high performance in SPFD anatomical sciences, as measured by final averages, serves as a predictor of success in GAE in a condensed medical school curriculum. We are excited for this research to serve as a platform for future studies focused on anatomical sciences and SPFD, and the potential impact they have on URMM learners as medical students at BSOM. Additional opportunities for scholarship focus on evaluating the use of performance in SPFD to gauge the need for early intervention for incoming medical students, including counseling, academic advising and individualized learning plans.