Who to Interview? Low Adherence by U.S. Medical Schools to Medical Student Performance Evaluation Format Makes Resident Selection Difficult

INTRODUCTION The Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) appendices provide a program director with comparative performance for a student's academic and professional attributes, but they are frequently absent or incomplete. METHODS We reviewed MSPEs from applicants to our emergency medicine residency program from 134 of 136 (99%) U.S. allopathic medical schools, over two application cycles (2012-13, 2014-15). We determined the degree of compliance with each of the five recommended MSPE appendices. RESULTS Only three (2%) medical schools were compliant with all five appendices. The medical school information page (MSIP, appendix E) was present most commonly (85%), followed by comparative clerkship performance (appendix B, 82%), overall performance (appendix D, 59%), preclinical performance (appendix A, 57%), and professional attributes (appendix C, 18%). Few schools (7%) provided student-specific, comparative professionalism assessments. CONCLUSION Medical schools inconsistently provide graphic, comparative data for their students in the MSPE. Although program directors (PD) value evidence of an applicant's professionalism when selecting residents, medical schools rarely provide such useful, comparative professionalism data in their MSPEs. As PDs seek to evaluate applicants based on academic performance and professionalism, rather than standardized testing alone, medical schools must make MSPEs more consistent, objective, and comparative.