Are MMIs suitable for all medical school applicants?
The Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) was developed by the Michael DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in 2002 (1). Motivated by the lack of non-cognitive testing found in the standard admission interview, the MMI was developed to accurately test for interpersonal skills and ethical judgement in prospective physicians (1). In addition, it hoped to provide predictive validity for success in medical school (1). It re-imagined the standard admission interview by creating 8–10 different stations, each with a sample case where the participant was allowed 2 minutes to read the question and collect their thoughts, and 8 minutes to answer. For example, one ethical question might ask:
“A 14 year old patient requests birth control pills from you and asks that you not tell her parents. What would you do?”
This case requires the interviewee to place themselves in the shoes of a doctor, and take into account many important factors such as confidentiality, and ethics. Since its launch, the test has appeared to be reliable to the population it was designed to assess — undergraduate and graduate students applying to medical school. However, many medical schools accept a younger population directly from high-school. For example, medical schools in England like St. George’s University of London accept students as young as 18 years old, with no undergraduate degree. Due to the fact that this population is younger, and less educated than the average population applying to Canadian schools like McMaster University, the test cannot be said to apply without further evaluation.
In a paper by O’Brien and colleagues, the MMI was administered to a small sample (n=21) of MBBS 5 applicants, a medical program which accepts students straight from high school (2). These younger students performed equally as well as an older sample (n=26) applying to the 4 year program (MBBS 4) on the MMI (2). However, the MBBS 5 applicants performed significantly better on the MMI when compared to the standard interview normally given at St. George’s University, while the MBBS 4 applicants showed no difference in the two interview scores (2). This is an interesting finding because it implies that the MMI is easier for a younger population. In addition, this paper highlight the holes left in the literature, namely, there are no studies that test predictive validity of the MMI in younger populations of medical school applicants. Before a decision can be made regarding the use of MMIs for MBBS 4 hopefuls, these issues must be assessed in the field with larger sample sizes.
References:
2. O’Brien, A., Harvey, J., Shannon, M., Lewis, K., & Valencia, O. (2011). A comparison of multiple mini-interviews and structured interviews in a UK setting. Medical teacher, 33(5), 397–402.
