Congratulations to the STARS Clerkship Taskforce on their recent publication:
Perspectives on High-Value Care Education Among US Medical Students
published in JAMA Network Open (October 2025)
Former and current STARS students Michelle Chen, MD, MPH (UCSD); Shivani Jain, MD, MPhil, MSc (LSU); Anitra Karthic, BS (Ohio State); Karthik Ramesh, MD (UCSD); and Hannah Shenton, MD (Ohio State), led by STARS Faculty Mentors Dr. Hannah Bassett (Stanford) and Dr. Allison Heacock (Ohio State), worked collaboratively to develop, deploy, and analyze a cross-sectional survey of third-year and fourth-year STARS students.
Method Highlights
- Of 229 eligible students, 119 (52%) responded to the survey, representing 40 US medical schools;
- The cross-sectional survey assessed the perceived prevalence and effectiveness of formal and informal HVC curricula in core clerkships across US medical schools;
- The survey was adapted from the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine annual survey and refined with cognitive interviews and pilot testing.
Key Findings
- The prevalence of HVC curricula (both informal and formal) varied widely across clerkships…
- Internal medicine and family or community medicine clerkships were perceived as most effectively incorporating HVC teaching, whereas emergency medicine and general surgery clerkships had the greatest discrepancy between the perceived need for effective HVC education and its current implementation…
- More than one-half of the clerkship-level medical students in this survey study reported their core clerkships had no formal HVC curriculum;
- 63% of respondents (73 of 116 students) reported being extremely or somewhat dissatisfied with their HVC education during core clerkships.
For the Future
- Consistency and clear objectives of a formal curriculum are needed to provide a foundation of clerkship-specific HVC knowledge that students can build upon through clinical experiences.
We were honored to have had William Silverstein, MD, MSc and Wendy Levinson, MD from Choosing Wisely Canada provide commentary titled:
Teaching Resource Stewardship to Medical Students – Less but Better
*A special thank you to Nathan Yee, MD (UMass Chan), former member of the STARS Clerkship Taskforce, for his contribution to the development of the study.
