Item-Writer Spotlight | Sarah Medrek, MD

ABIM is proud to spotlight members of the Item-Writing Task Forces, which are responsible for writing all of the content for assessments in each discipline of internal medicine. Learn more about the Item-Writing Task Forces and how ABIM creates assessment questions on the ABIM Blog. If you are interested in applying to serve as an Item-Writer, view current openings.

Sarah Medrek, MD | Pulmonary Disease Item-Writing Task Force

Dr. Medrek is currently the Deputy Chief of Medicine Service at South Texas. She also works clinically as a pulmonary/critical care physician with a subspecialty interest in pulmonary hypertension. She completed her medical training in 2017 after finishing a pulmonary and critical care fellowship and internal medicine residency at Baylor College of Medicine. She earned her medical degree from the University of Texas at Houston in 2011. Dr. Medrek had a brief career as a project manager at ExxonMobil before entering the field of medicine. She studied chemical engineering at Princeton University and initially hails from rural upstate New York.

Dr. Medrek has been on the Pulmonary Disease Item-Writing Task Force for four years. “I find item-writing to be like a puzzle: you need to fit all the pieces together to create a cohesive story,” she says. “I enjoy the challenge of this! It’s almost like doing a crossword puzzle (something I also enjoy doing)!”

Dr. Medrek advises new Item-Writers to “start by developing the correct answer choice and the incorrect answer choices. Finessing the testing point and creating the stem flows from that starting point.”

In her free time, Dr. Medrek enjoys spending time with family, cooking and jogging.