Formative evaluation of a pediatric digital library's educational content and comparison to national curricular standards.

Background: U.S. medical education has undergone numerous regulatory changes; to maintain educational consistency and quality, these changes must be met with innovative educational methods.
Aim: A formative evaluation of a pediatric digital library (PDL) documenting its content and comparing it to 3 national medical education curricula was performed.
Methods: The PDL's weekly cases are written using templates based on specific educational constructs. Cases (N = 150) were evaluated in November 2007. Data was tabulated by age group, specialty, symptom/presentation and disease/problem. Curriculum maps were developed from 3 national curricula and topics were mapped to one or more equivalent PDL topics. Data was tabulated for total national curriculum topics, mapped PDL topics and weekly cases.
Results: The cases covered 100% of all pediatric age groups (N = 9) and specialties (N = 42). They covered 85% of the symptoms/problems (N = 127) and 37.2% of the diseases/problems (N = 707). Although the PDL was not explicitly designed to meet these national curricula standards, >80% of the topics in these curricula were covered.
Conclusions: The PDL broadly covered national curricular standards and represents an unstructured pediatric curriculum. It offers a complementary and alternative educational method of medical education for educators and learners at all stages of professional development.