ReviewMedEdPublish (2016)2024
The Double-Edged Sword of Third-Party Resources: Examining Use and Financial Burden of Extracurricular Tools in Medical Students.
Review in MedEdPublish (2016), 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Board exam preparation resource trends in academic health sciences libraries serving colleges of osteopathic medicine programs.Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA · 2026Article
- The Impact of a Pass/Fail USMLE Step 1 Exam on USMLE Step 2 Exam Study Time.Medical science educator · 2025Article
- Key disparities between first-generation and continuing-generation medical students: a quantitative analysis.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Third-Party Resources: The New Wave of Medical Education.Medical science educator · 2025Article
- Investigating Critical Disparities in USMLE Step 1 Resources: Myocardial Infarction Symptoms in Women.PRiMER (Leawood, Kan.) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Year 2 questionnaire, the percentage of students using online medical education videos (Boards and Beyond®Sketchy Medical®, Youtube) at least once per week increased from 47.7% (2015) to 70.1% (2022). Transition to virtual learning in 2020 fostered a greater reliance on these online third-party resources (i.e., educational tools distinct from formal medical curriculum), yet existing literature have rarely evaluated their efficacy. As students in this landscape, we aimed to review the usage, efficacy, and drawbacks of third-party resources and their financial burden on students. Methods: Four authors searched PubMed from June-July 2023 using the search terms "prevalence," "efficacy," and "disparities introduced by third-party board preparation resources." All peer-reviewed articles in English were evaluated. No inclusion or exclusion criteria were implemented. References were mined for additional results, per the discretion of each reviewer. Results: 31 studies were examined for common themes and findings to provide a snapshot of the existing literature. Studies suggest third-party resources are used in a task-dependent manner with a supplemental role to lectures during the preclinical years and a primary role for United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) preparation during clinical years. Medical students access these resources to perform well on board exams, prompted by studies demonstrating their efficacy in increasing USMLE Step 1 scores. Though certain resources have been frequently cited for improving board performance (e.g., First Aid, UWorld), students combine multiple third-party resources to best serve their preparation. Subscription-pricing of most third-party resources and 12-month access prices range from $100 to $479. Conclusion: Third-party resource use may contribute to an increased financial strain on students. This, coupled with overwhelming medical student debt, may exacerbate socioeconomic disparities in medical education. Institutions should evaluate third-party resource use among students and consider provisions to increase access to them.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.