Clinically relevant colour album test for the colour defective medical student

PURPOSE: To evaluate the impact of color vision deficiency (CVD) in medical undergraduates by a more clinically applicable test. METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 31 students with CVD (Ishihara diagnosed) asked to identify subject-specific signs/tests requiring color identification on a customized medical multispecialty designed color album test (CAT). They were further subjected to Farnsworth D-15 testing. RESULTS: The error score of CVD students (4 ± 3.2) on 39 plates of color album test was highly significant as compared to the error score of color normal (0.3 ± 0.6). The CAT depicted linear correlation with Farnsworth D-15 and emerged as a valid tool of assessment. Ishihara interpretation did not correlate with the clinical impact of CVD. Nature of error suggests that CVD students can anticipate problems in dermatology, pathology, hematology, microbiology, and biochemistry. CONCLUSION: Color album test is a more clinically relevant test for CVD doctors to identify specialties where they can anticipate difficulties