Empowering medical residency training: a comparative analysis for understanding outpatient clinic demand and training needs

BACKGROUND: This research aims to identify the most common diagnoses recorded in the outpatient clinic database of a Training Hospital where residents provide patient care under trainer supervision, evaluate the adequacy of current training programs in addressing these diagnoses, and provide data for trainers to enhance early-stage resident education to provide insight for curriculum development and increasing the effectiveness of residency training programmes. METHODS: The study involved ranking ICD-10 diagnosis codes by frequency for each department and surveying clinical medicine residents in their second year and above to gather their perspectives on speciality training. RESULTS: Twenty-four clinical medicine departments (13 internal, 11 surgical medicine) were included. The top 5 diagnoses for each speciality and their rates in all patient encounters were determined. While the first 5 diagnoses in some of the specialities covered almost 90% (or above) of the outpatient diagnoses (Ophthalmology, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Gynaecology & Obstetrics), the place of the first five diagnoses in all diagnoses was determined as a very small proportion in departments such as Family Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Orthopaedics and Traumatology. The survey, which included 193 residents, uncovered that about half of the residents in both fields found the educational content partially sufficient (51.8%) and indicated a need for improvement in terms of expertise (70% in internal, vs. 51.8% in surgical medicine). CONCLUSIONS: The research emphasises the importance of early training focused on the most prevalent diagnoses in each speciality to enhance patient management and advocates for a more active role for trainers in developing a tailored education program considering the prevalence of top diagnoses in different specialities.