Prepubescent Female Genital Examination Images: Evidence-Informed Learning Opportunities

Objectives: To determine diagnoses and image features that are associated with difficult prepubescent female genital image interpretations. Design and Setting: This was a mixed-methods study conducted at a tertiary care pediatric center using images from a previously developed education platform. Participants: Participants comprised 107 medical students, residents, fellows, and attendings who interpreted 158 cases to derive case difficulty estimates. Interventions: This was a planned secondary analysis of participant performance data obtained from a prospective multi-center crosssectional study. An expert panel also performed a descriptive review of images with the highest frequency of diagnostic error. Main Outcome Measures: We derived the proportion of participants who interpreted an image correctly, and features that were common in images with the most frequent diagnostic errors. Results: We obtained 16,906 image interpretations. The mean proportion correct scores for each diagnosis were as follows: normal/normal variants 0.84 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.82, 0.87); infectious/dermatology pathology 0.59 (95% CI 0.45, 0.73); anatomic pathology 0.61 (95% CI 0.41, 0.81); and, traumatic pathology 0.64 (95% CI 0.49, 0.79). The mean proportion correct scores varied by diagnosis (P < .001). The descriptive review demonstrated that poor image quality, infant genitalia, normal variant anatomy, external material (eg, diaper cream) in the genital area, and nonspecific erythema were common features in images with lower accuracy scores. Conclusions: A quantitative and qualitative examination of prepubescent female genital examination image interpretations provided insight into diagnostic challenges for this complex examination. These data can be used to inform the design of teaching interventions to improve skill in this area.

Automated summary

The study aimed to identify diagnoses and image features associated with difficult interpretation of prepubescent female genital images. Results showed variations in mean correct proportion scores by diagnosis, as well as common features in images with the highest frequency of diagnostic errors.