A survey was administered to second-year students after they completed their respective dermatology curricula in the first semester of their second year for the F2020 and F2022 cohorts. There are mandatory in-person small-group problem-based learning classes where lecture material (slides) are directly applied and lectures that can be viewed virtually or in-person. Coding of all dermatology lecture images was independently done by authors (DB, AO, AP) after establishing interrater reliability using Fleiss’ kappa. The authors DB, AO, and AP reviewed all images presented in the six dermatology lectures and classified them as non-SOC or SOC based on standardized reference images [3]. The chi-square test for independence was used to determine the statistical significance of differences in survey responses between the F2020 and F2022 cohorts. After the F2020 audit, dermatology professors were contacted to increase SOC images in their lectures. For problem-based learning, introduction of diverse patients with SOC were introduced.

There were 4 multiple-choice questions pertaining to diversity within the dermatologic curricula, with one free response question. The multiple-choice questions were each paired with a corresponding 5-point Likert item assessing the students’ views on diversity within the curricula. Likert-item options for assessing student exposure to diverse skin types included “Strongly Disagree,” “Disagree,” “Neutral,” “Agree,” and “Strongly Agree,” with each option given a numerical value associated with it (“Strongly Disagree,” 1; “Strongly Agree,” 5) (Table 1).

Additionally, we asked students to rate their ability to identify and diagnose dermatologic conditions in diverse skin types. Likert-item options for assessing student ability to identify and diagnose dermatologic conditions in diverse skin types included “Not at all comfortable,” “Uncomfortable,” “Average,” “Comfortable,” and “Very comfortable,” with each option given a numerical value associated with it (“Not at all comfortable,” 1; “Very comfortable,” 5). A free response question was proposed to gain insight into dermatology materials and their ability to prepare students to care for a diverse patient population.