Designing a summative assessment blueprint in community medicine: an expert consensus approach at All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

Background: Despite the increasing integration of competency-based education in medicine, there remains a significant gap in effectively assessing educational outcomes, underscoring the urgent need for designed assessment blueprints that accurately reflect both curriculum content and competency standards in Community Medicine for undergraduate students. This study, conducted across the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) network, develops a summative assessment blueprint aimed at standardizing evaluations in medical education across diverse geographic locations in India.

Methods: Twenty-five experts from 10 All India Institutes of Medical Science were invited via email and contributed for summative assessment for a theory paper. Each week, the study lead team sent an online form containing 25 topics. A total of 269 topics were selected to be included in the blueprint development. An Impact and Frequency score was obtained for each topic, with a score between 1 and 3 for both its "Impact (I)" and "Frequency" (F).

Results: The overall response rate was 71%. "Principle of epidemiology" (14.7%) had the most weight, followed by "Epidemiology of communicable disease" (13.4%) and "National Health Program" (10%). These three chapters constituted more than one-third of the total weight of the summative assessment (theory). 20 out of 24 (83%) chapters have moderate-to-good interrater reliability.

Conclusions: The blueprint developed in this study is intended to serve as a guideline for setting question papers and aims to enhance objectivity, uniformity, and validity in assessment construction. While it provides a structured approach within the AIIMS network, its broader applicability may be limited, suggesting that its effectiveness in other educational contexts remains to be validated. Continued research is encouraged to explore its utility across diverse educational settings.