Abstracts

Rationale:
In accordance with the ACGME milestones project, adult neurology residents, by the time of graduation, should be able to interpret common EEG abnormalities and recognize normal EEG variants. However, there are no standardized methodologies for resident education. In this study, we sought to assess short-term and long-term efficacy of lecture-based EEG didactics through the utilization of an EEG quiz in an adult neurology cohort at Baylor College of Medicine.
Method:
Residents were given an EEG quiz at three time points: time zero (T0), time one (T1), and time two (T2). T0 corresponded to the beginning of the academic year, before our yearly EEG lecture series. EEG lectures occurred immediately after T0. T1 and T2 corresponded to 40-75 and 240 days after the aforementioned lectures, respectively. The EEG quiz was divided in two parts, composed of normal and abnormal EEG examples curated by board-certified epileptologists.
Results:
Eleven adult neurology residents completed the EEG quiz at the three time points and attended at least 50% of the EEG lectures. The overall mean scores on normal EEG findings were 48% (T0), 60% (T1), and 64% (T2). The f-ratio was 3.7 and p˂0.05 (repeated measures ANOVA). The overall mean scores on abnormal EEG findings were 48% (T0), 62% (T1), and 58% (T2). The f-ratio was 2.4 and p˃0.05 (repeated measures ANOVA).
Conclusion:
Our results suggest that lecture-based didactics result in improvement in EEG knowledge – reflected by better quiz scores. Additionally, we showed maintenance of EEG knowledge given the relatively higher scores at T2 in comparison to T0. These results reached statistical significance in the normal EEG portion of the quiz but not in the abnormal EEG portion. We believe further and larger studies are required in order to validate lecture-based didactics specifically within the realm of EEG education in residency.
Funding:
:None.