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In 2011 the Consensus Statement on Performance Assessment was published in Medical Teacher. That paper was commissioned by AMEE (Association for Medical Education in Europe) as part of the series of Consensus Statements following the 2010 Ottawa Conference. In 2019, it was recommended that a working group be reconvened to review and consider developments in performance assessment since the 2011 publication. Following review of the original recommendations in the 2011 paper and shifts in the field across the past 10 years, the group identified areas of consensus and yet to be resolved issues for performance assessment. This paper addresses developments in performance assessment since 2011, reiterates relevant aspects of the 2011 paper, and summarises contemporary best practice recommendations for OSCEs and WBAs, fit-for-purpose methods for performance assessment in the health professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents perspectives and controversies surrounding the use of milestones to assess competency in outcomes-based medical education. Global perspectives (Canada, Europe, and the United States) and developments supporting their rationales are discussed. In Canada, there is a significant movement away from conceptualizing competency based on time, and a move toward demonstration of specific competencies. The success of this movement may require complex (rather than reductionist) milestones that reflect students' progression through complexity and context and a method to narrate their journey. European countries (United Kingdom, France, and Germany) have stressed the complexity associated with time and milestones for medical students to truly achieve competence. To meet the changing demands of medicine, they view time as actually providing students with knowledge and exposure to achieve various milestones. In the United States, milestones are based on sampling throughout professional development to initiate lifelong learning. However, the use of milestones may not imply overall competence (reductionism). Milestones must be developed alongside outcomes-based curriculum with use of faculty and competency committees. The perspectives outlined in this paper underscore emerging challenges for implementing outcomes-based medical education and call for new conceptualizations of competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Medical education has traditionally been compartmentalized into basic and clinical sciences, with the latter being viewed as the skillful application of the former. Over time, the relevance of basic sciences has become defined by their role in supporting clinical problem solving rather than being, of themselves, a defining knowledge base of physicians. Methods: As part of the national Future of Medical Education in Canada (FMEC MD) project, a comprehensive empirical environmental scan identified the timing and integration of basic sciences as a key pressing issue for medical education. Using the literature review, key informant interviews, stakeholder meetings, and subsequent consultation forums from the FMEC project, this paper details the empirical basis for focusing on the role of basic science, the evidentiary foundations for current practices, and the implications for medical education. Findings: Despite a dearth of definitive relevant studies, opinions about how best to integrate the sciences remain strong. Resource allocation, political power, educational philosophy, and the shift from a knowledge-based to a problem-solving profession all influence the debate. There was little disagreement that both sciences are important, that many traditional models emphasized deep understanding of limited basic science disciplines at the expense of other relevant content such as social sciences, or that teaching the sciences contemporaneously rather than sequentially has theoretical and practical merit. Innovations in integrated curriculum design have occurred internationally. Less clear are the appropriate balance of the sciences, the best integration model, and solutions to the political and practical challenges of integrated curricula. Discussion: New curricula tend to emphasize integration, development of more diverse physician competencies, and preparation of physicians to adapt to evolving technology and patients' expectations. Refocusing the basic/clinical dichotomy to a foundational/applied model may yield benefits in training widely competent future physicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors convey their views on Consensus Statements and Recommendations relating to assessment in the healthcare professions in several areas. The Consensus Statements offered an opportunity to identify areas of weakness to further advance the field of assessment. An additional Consensus Statement was produced in 2016 that addressed best assessment practice in interprofessional education. Information on the 2018 Ottawa Consensus Framework for Good Assessment is presented.

The article presents news briefs regarding medical education and the Association for Medical Education In Europe (AMEE), including previews of events for the pending September 4-9, 2015 AMEE conference in Glasgow, Scotland, details regarding the AMEE Medical Education Fellowship Awards, and trivia questions and answers regarding medical education.

Background: Simulated office orals (SOOs) are used by the College of Family Physicians of Canada as a method to evaluate family medicine resident readiness for clinical practice. The use of SOOs as a progress test would provide residency programs with useful information to determine resident readiness for challenging the certification exam. The data from a progress test could then be easily manipulated to generate a risk assessment plot. Methods: During a prospective cohort study conducted at the University of Ottawa, the feasibility of using practice SOO sessions, a structured clinical exam, as a progress test was explored. Twenty-three residents participated in all four practice SOO sessions and their results were entered into a risk assessment plot. Results: Repeated measures analysis of the data using ANOVA demonstrated that the residents’ scores at each time point were statistically different from each other, generating anF(3, 66) = 27.52,p < 0.001,η2 = 0.55.and that the relationship over time was linear with anF(1, 22) = 123.80,p < 0.001,η2 = 0.85. At the final time point, a risk assessment resulted in no learners mapping to quadrants III or IV. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing a SOO exam, a clinical exam, as a progress test. In addition, we propose generating a risk assessment plot, using the data from the Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 practice SOO sessions, as a means of identifying residents at risk. Further studies will be needed to confirm the utility of this analysis. Combined with other measures acquired during in-training evaluation, the utilization of practice SOOs as a progress test will provide program directors with valuable information on resident progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers news briefs as of 2014. An International Association For Medical Education (AMEE) Office would be moving to a new location in Dundee, Scotland. The workshop entitled "Social Media Boot Camp" at the Canadian Conference on Medical Education (CCME) featuring panelists including Anne Marie Cunningham would be held on April 25, 2014. The use of flipped classrooms helped students to secure better grades at University of North Carolina, Asheville.

Critical self-reflection, medical ethics and clinical skills are each important components of medical education but are seldom linked in curriculum development. We developed a curriculum that builds on the existing integration of ethics education into the clinical skills course to more explicitly link these three skills. The curriculum builds on the existing integration of clinical skills and ethics in first year medicine. It refines the integration through scheduling changes; adds case studies that emphasise the social, economic and political context of our province's patient population; and introduces reflection on the 'culture of medicine' as a way to have students articulate and understand their own values and moral decision making frameworks. This structured Clinical Skills course is a model for successfully integrating critical self-reflection, reflection on the political, economic and cultural contexts shaping health and healthcare, and moral decision making into clinical skills training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]