History of medical specialty interest assessment

Medical specialties require decidedly different abilities, skills, and talents; which results in divergent experiences, lifestyles, skill sets, and income levels. To help medical students select their preferred medical specialty and alleviate shortages in medical specialty staffing, US medical schools and associations invest time and money in decision-making resources, such as career-specific interest inventories. Strong and Tucker failed in their attempt to create a medical specialty interest assessment. Gough created the Medical Specialty Preference Scales; however, the instrument failed to achieve adequate reliability and validity. Zimney created the Medical Specialty Preference Inventory (MSPI), which achieved reliability and validity warranting use and continued development. Significant improvements and changes have been made to improve the predictive hit rates achieved by the MSPI. The Medical Specialty Preference Inventory-revised (MSPI-R) currently achieves predictive hit rates between 33 and 54%. Medical school career centers may want to provide students with the autobiographies of practicing physicians who share similar profile patterns to ensure a better fit between the medical student and the medical specialty. Career autobiographies could shift the type and volume of information offered to medical students seeking answers to specialty selection, which may help alleviate shortages in medical specialty staffing