Diversity Audit of Medical School Examination Questions

Phenomenon: This article reports the under-researched presentation of demographic, social, and economic diversity in medical school examination questions. Approach: The present study audited 3,566 pre-clinical and clinical multiple-choice and short answer examination questions in the same year (2018) from three medical schools in two continents to review the diversity of patients portrayed. The audit was based on an extension of Critical Race Theory beyond race and ethnicity to include pertinent social determinants of health. Findings: Patients were presented in 1,537 (43.1%) of the audited examination questions. Apart from age (89.4%) and binary genders (93.9%), other diversity characteristics were rarely portrayed (ethnicity 7.2%, relationship status 1.9%, sexual identity 1.1%, socio-economic status 0.5%, geographic residence 0.1%, disability 0.1%), or not at all (non-binary genders; residency status; religion/spirituality). Insights: While presenting excessive and unnecessary patient characteristics in examination questions should be avoided, the absence of many diversity aspects may reduce examination authenticity and defeat the teaching of diversity in medicine. Medical schools should consider a routine audit and reasonable improvement of the diversity features of patients in examination questions to support teaching and learning activities addressing patients’ diversity.