The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and Association of Osteopathic Colleges of Medicine (AACOM) Curriculum SCOPE Survey, first administered in 2023, is a national questionnaire administered by the AAMC. It collects medical education program data regarding curriculum structure, content, organization, process, and evaluation.
Data from the Curriculum SCOPE Survey supports the AAMC and AACOM missions and advocacy work, informs medical school strategic plans and evidence-based curriculum decisions, and facilitates scholarship and dissemination.
Survey opens: November 14, 2023Â
Survey closes: February 6, 2024Â
The Curriculum SCOPE Survey includes questions related to:
- Clinical experiences and clerkships,
- Special programs and tracks, such as certificates and accelerated programs,
- Content topics and where these are located in the curriculum,
- Competency-based medical education (CBME) frameworks in the curriculum,
- And more
The Curriculum SCOPE Survey has been reviewed by the American Institutes for Research Institutional Review Board.
Stay Connected
Contact curriculum@aamc.org to ensure your school contacts are up to date to receive the survey invitation and latest news.Â
Curriculum Virtual Community
Keep up with discussions, samples, and events related to curriculum including the Curriculum SCOPE Survey.
Resources
Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)
Most common questions and answers regarding the Curriculum SCOPE Survey are available here. If your question is not listed in the FAQs, please contact curriculum@aamc.org.Â
Curriculum Committee
The Curriculum Committee includes a sub-group which provides feedback and advises as to survey content and data use of the Curriculum SCOPE Survey.Â
Suggestion BoxÂ
Questions on the Curriculum SCOPE Survey change over time to meet ever-evolving needs of schools and the AAMC and AACOM missions. Proposed topics and questions are considered in light of priorities and with advisement from the Curriculum Committee. Â If you have suggested topics or questions for a future iteration of the Curriculum SCOPE Survey, we welcome your feedback.
Reports
The reporting strategy for this collection has two aims: 1) Publicly available de-identified, aggregate reports, and 2) School-specific filterable data for benchmarking and evaluation purposes.
The design of these reports is in progress, in cooperation with AAMC data experts across departments and our external panel. Reports will be available in 2024, following the completion of the 2023 collection cycle. In the meantime, the current Curriculum Reports webpage is available for use.
Background
In 2022, the AAMC launched an effort to review curriculum data collections. The aims of the review were to ensure that the technical and staffing resources required were not unduly burdensome, that medical schools had equitable access to participation, and that data was consistently reported and utilized.
As announced in October 2022, the result of this review was the decision to consolidate data collections, including the Curriculum Inventory, the New, Emerging, and Evolving Demands (NEEDS) Survey, as well as some items from the Regional Medical Campus Survey and Simulation Inventory Survey. In collaboration with AACOM, the curriculum portion of the AACOM Annual Survey was also reviewed.
After this review, potential survey items were reduced through a prioritization exercise, leading to an overall reduction, such that the institutional burden in providing data to the AAMC is significantly less. Whereas the consolidated data collections were collectively upwards of 100 hours of effort, the maximum amount of time for the SCOPE Survey reported in pilot testing among medical schools was 10 hours.
The nimble operational approach and rigorous survey design has ensured that data are necessary to complete the work of medical schools, of reliable and high quality, and can adjust as curriculum continues to evolve.