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metabolism (eg, maple syrup urine disease, diseases involving urea cycle); storage
diseases (eg, Fabry disease, Tay-Sachs disease, glycogen storage disease,
mucopolysaccharidoses)
structural protein disorders: amyloidosis; Ehlers-Danlos syndrome; immotile cilia
syndrome (Kartagener syndrome; primary ciliary dyskinesia); Marfan syndrome
intracellular/extracellular transport receptors: cystic fibrosis; hemochromatosis; Wilson
disease
triplet repeat/RNA disorders: fragile X syndrome
Adverse effects of drugs on multisystem disorders: drug-induced electrolyte abnormalities
and acid base-disorders (eg, albuterol; prednisone; diuretics; alcohol; drugs inducing
polydipsia, SIADH, or diabetes insipidus)
Biostatistics, Epidemiology/Population Health, & Interpretation of the Medical
Literature
Epidemiology/population health
Measures of disease frequency: incidence/prevalence
Measures of health status: rates, crude and adjusted; reproductive rates (eg, maternal
mortality, neonatal/infant/under-5 mortality); mortality, morbidity; standardization; life
expectancy, health-adjusted life expectancy; population attributable risk (PAR),
population attributable risk percent (PAR%); risk factors
Survival analysis interpretation (eg, Kaplan-Meier curve)
Composite health status indicators, measures of population impact: years of potential life
lost; quality-adjusted life years; disability-adjusted life years; standardized mortality ratio
Population pyramids and impact of demographic changes
Disease surveillance and outbreak investigation: disease reporting; response to public
health advisory, health promotion; recognition of clusters
Communicable disease transmission: attack rate; herd immunity; reportable diseases
Points of intervention: primary, secondary; community level (eg, cigarette taxes, soda taxes,
smoke-free cities, buildings: restaurants, public buildings); school policies; access,
healthy food, transportation, clean air, safe environments
Study design, types and selection of studies (includes dependent/independent
variables)
Descriptive studies (case report [one person]/case series [more than one])
Analytical studies: observational: community surveys; cross-sectional (individuals);
ecological (populations); case control; retrospective and prospective cohort
Analytical studies: interventional: clinical trial (randomized controlled trial; double-blind;
placebo-controlled; noninferiority/equivalence trials); community intervention
Systematic reviews and meta-analysis: potential uses; estimation of effect sizes;
heterogeneity; publication bias; forest plots, funnel diagrams; risk of bias, bias risk scale
Obtaining and describing samples: matching, inclusion/exclusion criteria, selecting
appropriate controls for studies, lack of controls, concealed allocation,
randomization, stratification
Methods to handle noncompliance: loss to follow-up; intention-to-treat analysis
Qualitative analysis
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Measures of association
Relative risk
Odds ratio, hazard ratio
Other measures of association: number needed to treat/harm; absolute risk (AR), absolute
risk percent (AR%); population attributable risk (PAR), population attributable risk
percent (PAR%)
Distributions of data:
measures of central tendency; measures of variability; regression to
mean; normal distribution; nominal measurement
Correlation and regression, uses and interpretation:
correlation coefficients;
multiple regression
Principles of testing and screening
Properties of a screening test: validity, accuracy, reliability; criteria for a screening test;
confirmatory testing; appropriateness; lead-time bias, length bias; screening vs
diagnostic tests
Sensitivity and specificity; predictive value, positive and negative
ROC curves
Probability: theory (independence, product, addition rules); decision trees; likelihood ratios
(application of Bayes theorem); posttest, pretest
Study interpretation, drawing conclusions from data
Causation: hypothesis-generating vs hypothesis-driven testing; causal criteria, temporality,
temporal sequence, dose-response relationship; reverse causality
Chance
null hypothesis, Type I error and alpha level (multiple comparisons, random
error/chance)
sample size and Type II error, beta, power
selection and interpretation of basic tests of statistical significance: chi-square;
confidence intervals; p-values; t-test
a priori vs. post hoc analysis: subgroup analysis; error rate; affect types
Interpretation of graphs/tables and text
Bias, confounding, and threats to validity (includes methods to address)
selection, sampling bias
information bias: recall; ascertainment, ecologic fallacy, lack of blinding; loss to follow up
confounding variables, Hawthorne effect (includes methods to address)
other threats to validity (eg, placebo effect)
Internal vs. external validity: generalizability (external validity); efficacy vs effectiveness
Statistical vs. clinical significance; clinical and surrogate outcome/end point
Clinical decision making, interpretation and use of evidence-based data and
recommendations:
application of study results to patient care and practice, including
patient preferences and individualization of risk profiles; risk/benefit analysis; synthesis of
concepts with real data
Research ethics
Informed consent for research
Privacy of patient data (HIPAA)
Roles of institutional review boards (IRBs)
Intervention analysis: interim analysis; stopping analysis; safety monitoring
Regulatory issues: drug development, phases of approval; appropriateness of placebo;
appropriateness of randomized clinical trial; components of studies; ethics; scheduling;
off-label use
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Other issues related to research ethics
Social Sciences
Communication and interpersonal skills, including health literacy and numeracy, cultural
competence
Patient interviewing, consultation, and interactions with the family (patient-
centered communication skills)
fostering the relationship (eg, expressing interest)
information gathering (eg, exploring patient's reaction to illness)
information provision (eg, providing information about working diagnosis)
making decisions (eg, eliciting patient's perspectives)
supporting emotions (eg, effective discussion with difficult patients)
enabling patient behaviors (eg, education and counseling)
Use of an interpreter
Medical ethics and jurisprudence, include issues related to death and dying and
palliative care
Consent/informed consent to treatment, permission to treat (full disclosure, risks and
benefits, placebos, alternative therapies, conflict of interest, and vulnerable
populations)
Determination of medical decision-making capacity/informed refusal
Involuntary admission
Legal issues related to abuse (child, elder, and intimate partner)
child protective services, foster care, immunizations
legal requirements for reporting abuse or neglect/obligation to warn
Birth-related issues
Death and dying and palliative care
life support
advance directive, health care proxy, advance care planning
euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide
brain death/diagnosing brain death/diagnosing death
pronouncing death
organ donation
hospice
pain management, including ethical issues related to death and dying
information sharing, counseling families
psychosocial and spiritual counseling, fear and loneliness
Physician-patient relationship (boundaries, confidentiality including HIPAA, privacy, truth-
telling, other principles of medical ethics, eg, autonomy, justice, beneficence)
Impaired physician, including duty to report impaired physician
Negligence/malpractice, including duty to report negligence and malpractice
Physician misconduct, including duty to report physician misconduct
Referrals
Cultural issues not otherwise coded
Systems-based practice (including health systems, public health, community, schools)
and patient safety (including basic concepts and terminology)
Complexity/systems thinking
Characteristics of a complex system and factors leading to complexity: how complexity
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leads to error
Health care/organizational behavior and culture: environmental factors, workplace
design and process; staffing; overcommitment, space, people, time, scheduling;
standardization, reducing variance, simplification, metrics; safety culture; integration
of care across settings; overutilization of resources (imaging studies, antibiotics,
opioids); economic factors
Quality improvement
Improvement science principles
Variation and standardization: variation in process, practice; checklists, guidelines, and
clinical pathways
Reliability
Specific models of quality improvement: model for improvement: plan-do-study-act
(PDSA), plan-do-check-act (PDCA)
Quality measurement
Structure, process, outcome, and balancing measures
Measurement tools: run and control charts
Development and application of system and individual quality measures: core
measures; physician quality report system (PQRS); event reporting system
Strategies to improve quality
Role of leadership
Principles of change management in quality improvement: specific strategies
Attributes of high-quality health care
High-value/cost-conscious care: overutilization of resources, including diagnostic
testing, medications
Equitable care: access
Patient-centered care
Timely care
Patient Safety
Patient safety principles
Epidemiology of medical error
Error categorization/definition: active vs latent errors; Swiss cheese model of error;
preventable vs non-preventable; near miss events/safety hazards
Causes of error
Patient factors: understanding of medication use; health literacy; economic status;
cultural factors (eg, religion); failure to make appointments; socioeconomic status
Physician factors: deficiency of knowledge; judgment errors; diagnostic errors;
fatigue, sleep deprivation; bias – cognitive, availability, heuristic, anchoring,
framing
Human factors (eg, cognitive, physical, environmental)
High reliability of organization (HRO) principles: change management and
improvement science; conceptual models of improvement
Reporting and monitoring for errors: event reporting systems
Communication with patients after adverse events (disclosure/transparency)
Specific types of error
Transitions of care errors (eg, handoff communication including shift-to-shift, transfer,
and discharge): handoffs and related communication; discontinuities; gaps; discharge;
transfers
Medication errors
Ordering, transcribing, dispensing, administration (wrong quantity, wrong route,
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wrong drug)
Medication reconciliation
Mathematical error
Procedural errors
Universal protocol (time out); wrong patient; wrong site; wrong procedure
Retained foreign bodies
Injury to structures: paracentesis; bowel perforation; thoracentesis; pneumothorax;
central venous/arterial line injuries; arterial puncture and bleeding and venous
thrombosis; lumbar puncture bleeding; paralysis
Other errors: anesthesia-related errors; mathematical errors
Health care-associated infections: nosocomial infection – eg, surgical site, ventilator
associated, catheter-related; handwashing procedures or inadequate number of
handwashing stations; central line-associated blood stream infections; surgical site
infections; catheter-associated urinary tract infections; ventilator-associated
pneumonia
Documentation errors: electronic medical record (including voice-recognition software
errors); record keeping; incorrect documentation (eg, wrong patient, wrong date,
copying and pasting, pre-labeling)
Patient identification errors
Mislabeling: transfusion errors related to mislabeling
Verification/two identifiers: lack of dual validation, including verbal verification of
lab results
Diagnostic errors: errors in diagnostic studies; misinterpretation
Monitoring errors
Cardiac monitoring/telemetry
Drug monitoring (warfarin, antibiotics)
Device-related errors
malfunction
programming error
incorrect use
Strategies to reduce error
Human factors engineering
Situational awareness
Hierarchy of effective interventions: forcing function; visual cues
Error analysis tools: error/near miss analysis; failure modes and effect analysis;
morbidity and mortality review; root cause analysis
Safety behavior and culture at the individual level: hierarchy of health care, flattening
hierarchy, speak up to power; afraid to report, fear; psychological safety; closed-loop
communication
Teamwork: principles of highly effective teams; case management; physician teams,
physician-physician communication; interprofessional/intraprofessional teams;
strategies for communication among teams, including system-provider
communication, physician-physician communication (eg, consultations),
interprofessional communication, provider-patient communication
Health care policy and economics
Health care policy
Health care disparities: race/ethnicity; numeracy/literacy; socioeconomic status
Access to care: critical access systems or hospitals
Social justice
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Health care economics/Health care financing
Types of insurance: Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, self-pay
Navigating the insurance system: deductibles/co-pays; in-/out-of-network; preferred
providers
Reimbursement issues affecting safety and quality: emergency services – EMTALA;
pay-for-performance
Document Outline - USMLE Content Outline cover
- Public UALL FINAL
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