Table 2.

Comparison of Communication and Clinical Reasoning Skills Using Standardized Patient Encounters with Students Who Did and Did Not Receive the AIME (An Integrated Medical Encounter) Curriculum

	AIME Students	Non-AIME Students	P Value *
Communication skills, mean (SE)
Interpersonal score ratings †
Overall interpersonal score	3.72 (0.13)	3.62 (0.13)	.21
Data gathering	3.66 (0.15)	3.58 (0.15)	.35
Establishing rapport	4.09 (0.15)	3.91 (0.15)	.05
Patient education and counseling	3.09 (0.20)	3.03 (0.20)	.62
Clinical reasoning skills, mean (SE)
Problem list
Problems listed	8.4 (0.71)	7.5 (0.74)	.05
History of present illness items	4.6 (0.50)	3.8 (0.51)	.01
Differential diagnoses
Diagnoses listed	4.0 (0.33)	3.9 (0.32)	.30
Supporting factors for the correct diagnosis	2.2 (0.26)	2.0 (0.25)	.43
Refuting factors for the correct diagnosis	0.36 (0.14)	0.44 (0.14)	.41
Diagnostic Thinking Inventory total score	165.4 (5.46)	164.0 (5.46)	.69
Clinical reasoning skills
Psychosocial history items listed (% of students)
No items listed	35	56
≥1 items listed	65	44	.008

^*All analyses are adjusted for students' previous health professional training. Comparisons for supporting and refuting factors were made using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Comparisons for psychosocial history items were made by chi-square analyses. All other comparisons were made using Student's t-tests.

^†Interpersonal score ratings scale: 1=poor, 2=adequate, 3=good, 4=very good, and 5=excellent. Each rating was based on an average score for both standardized patient cases and converted to a 5-point score based upon the number of items contained in each category (30 items for the overall interpersonal score; 5 items for each subscale).