Residencies with dual internal medicine and pediatrics programs outperform others on the American Board of Pediatrics Certifying Examination.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose was to evaluate American Board of Pediatrics Certifying Examination performance based on if a residency offers a dual internal medicine-pediatrics program, hypothesizing that having a dual-accreditation program is associated with higher exam performance.

METHODS: Pediatric residency programs in the United States were retrospectively evaluated from 2010 to 2012. The accreditation status was determined. Mann-Whitney U tests were performed for continuous variables, and χ(2) tests were performed for categorical variables, using an α = .05.

RESULTS: For 190 residencies, 75 (39%) had dual Med-Peds accreditation whereas 115 (61%) did not. The median overall residency pass rate for Med-Peds accredited programs (83%; interquartile range = 74% to 91%) was higher than other programs (78%; interquartile range = 65% to 89%; P = .02). The pass rate for examinees from Med-Peds accredited programs (n = 4,108; 84.2%) was higher than examinees from other programs (n = 4,310; 79.6%; P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS: The presence of a dual-accreditation residency program should be a consideration of future applicants.