OSVE or multiple-choice test: Is that a relevant question?

Introduction: The OSCE has been a robust tool for assessing clinical skills in medical education, adaptable across various clinical domains and stages. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, posed significant challenges to traditional assessment methods. This led to the development of the OSVE as an alternative.
Objective: This study aimed to correlate OSVE results with MCT scores and Grade Point Average (GPA) of clerkship.
Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 129 clerkships. It compared two OSVEs and two MCTs, covering content from the 5th and 6th years of the curriculum, against final graduation grades.
Results: The score of GPA was 8.13 ± 0.43. The authors compared OSVE-5th (7.13 ± 0.93) and OSVE-6th (7.23 ± 0.83, NS), MCT-5th (7.08 ± 0.91) vs. MCT-6th (7.68 ± 1.21, p < 0.001), OSVE-5th (7.13 ± 0.93) and MCT-5th (7.08 ± 0.91, NS), OSVE-6th (7.23 ± 0.83) and MCT-6th (7.68 ± 1.21, p < 0.001) OSVE-5th (7.13 ± 0.93) and MCT-6th (7.68 ± 1.21, p < 0.001), OSVE-6th (7.23 ± 0.83) and MCT-5th (7.08 ± 0.91, NS), OSVE-5th (7.13 ± 0.93) and GPA (8.13 ± 0.43, p < 0.001), OSVE-6th (7.23 ± 0.83) and GPA (8.13 ± 0.43, p < 0.001), MCT-5th (7.08 ± 0.91) and GPA (8.13 ± 0.43, p < 0.001), and MCT-6th (7.68 ± 1.21) and GPA (8.13 ± 0.43, p < 0.001). There were positive correlations between OSVE-5th and OSVE-6th (R = 0.418, p < 0.05), OSVE-5th and MCT-5th (R = 0.475, p < 0.05), MCT-5th, OSVE-6th and MCT-6th (R = 0,180, p < 0.05), MCT-6th (R = 0.227, p < 0.05), with OSVE-6th and MCT-5th (R = 0.478, p < 0.05), OSVE-5th and GPA (R = 0.481, p < 0.05), OSVE-6th and GPA (R = 0,439, p < 0.05), MCT-5th and GPA (R = 0.681, p < 0.05) and MCT-6th and GPA (R = 0.195, p < 0.05), no correlation was found between OSVE-6th and MCT-6th (R = 0.070, NS).
Conclusions: The correlations between the assessments revealed mild to moderate, suggesting that the assessments can be used interchangeably in the context of formative assessment. These results indicate the feasibility of using both OSVE and multiple-choice tests as effective tools to enhance intern training and monitoring.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
(Copyright © 2024 HCFMUSP. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)