Impact of Benign Hematology Didactic Lectures on In-service Exam in a Hematology-Oncology Fellowship Program: a Cross-sectional Longitudinal Study

It remains unclear on whether the traditional formal didactic lecture sessions improve knowledge acquisition with conflicting data in the literature. This study evaluates the impact of an additional benign hematology didactic curriculum on the American Society of Hematology In-Service Exam (ASHISE). During the first 5 years of the study (2012–2016), formal didactic lectures consisted of medical oncology and malignant hematology topics only. Formal benign hematology didactic lectures were added during the last 2 years of the study (2017–2018). All fellows are required to take the ASHISE annually. All fellows’ ASHISE scores from 2012 to 2018 were collected. The mean total and Coagulation scale score were calculated by year of fellowship training. Pre-intervention (2012–2016) and post-intervention (2017–2018) scores were analyzed using a Student’s t test. Over a 7-year period, 34 hematology-oncology fellows took the ASHISE. There was no statistical difference in the mean total and Coagulation scale score for the ASHISE in the pre-intervention and post-intervention group. The addition of a benign hematology curriculum did not improve fellows’ performance on the ASHISE.