HEALTH SYSTEMS SCIENCE SUBJECT EXAM

Assess student knowledge of health systems science and their readiness for effective clinical practice 

Overview

NBME collaborated with the American Medical Association and medical faculty experts in health systems science to develop the Health Systems Science Subject Exam. This high-quality, standardized assessment tool can be used to support the implementation of health systems science curricula and educational initiatives.

In addition to helping you save the time and resources that go into creating your own assessment, the Health Systems Science Subject Exam enables you to:

  • Assess your students' readiness for effective clinical practice during residency and throughout their careers
  • Provide your students with actionable feedback through in-depth score reports that help them progress on their learning journey
  • Measure the effectiveness of your curriculum and monitor the impact of curricular interventions, so you can make improvements

Administration

The Health Systems Science Subject Exam is available for administration at your school. The web-based exam must be administered in a secure, proctored setting. NBME provides a web-based utility that checks both hardware and software configurations and downloads a plug-in that secures the browser.

The computer is locked down, preventing the examinee from accessing applications such as email or notepad. It also includes a function designed to detect any recording applications and programs that may be running on workstations or examinees’ personal laptops prior to the start of the exam.

How to Purchase

The Health Systems Science Subject Exam is available to purchase through the online ordering system on the MyNBME Services Portal.

    NBME Executive Chief Proctors at medical schools and those with parallel responsibilities at residency programs or other organizations will have access to this portal.

    The following information must be provided in the web-based exam order:

    • Test date
    • Expected number of examinees
    • Number of any examinees who need extra testing time and the corresponding exam length (1.5x or 2x the standard time limit allocated for other examinees)
    • Test session start and end times
    • Names, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses for the Chief Proctors assigned to each testing room

    Score Reports

    All scoring feedback, norms, and grading guidelines for the Health Systems Science Subject Exam can be accessed through the MyNBME Services Portal.

    A brief description of the various types of score reports is provided below.

    • Provides detailed information about the computation of scores, the contents of each type of score report and the contents of downloadable data files.
    • It is included with the Roster Report and can also be accessed separately on the portal under the Score Reports tab.
    • Provides the total score for each examinee and descriptive statistics for the administration. A downloadable roster text file includes the total score and content area scores for each examinee.
    • Available for any Subject Exam administration with at least 5 examinees and for which equated scores are available.
    • Provides information on the performance of your examinees and a national group of examinees on the major content areas on the exam.
    • Provides information about overall performance and performance on major content areas on the exam for each examinee.
    • Intended for distribution to examinees as an aid in self-assessment.
    • Provides information enabling you to compare your examinees’ performance with a nationally representative group of examinees from LCME-accredited medical schools at the same stage of training.
    • The most recent norms for each exam are included with the score reports and can also be accessed separately on the MyNBME Services Portal along with earlier norms (when available) under the Score Reports tab.

    Interested in learning more about the Health Systems Science Subject Exam or another NBME product?

    Complete the consultation request form to get in touch with NBME staff.