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New paper out on the GP Tests of Competence assessment

2 January 2018

In the UK, the General Medical Council conducts tests of competence of doctors where there are concerns about their fitness to practise. GPs currently take three tests: a single best answer knowledge test, an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), and a Simulated Surgery assessment (a simulated GP consultation). By examining a large data set of past results, complemented by interviews with assessors, we have shown that there is a fair amount of overlap between the OSCE and the Simulated Surgery, but that the Simulated Surgery appears to offer more predictive power. We recommend that the OSCE can be dropped and that other countires should consider adopting Simulated Surgery equivalents for their assessments.

Jayaweera HK, Potts HWW, Keshwani K, Valerio C, Baker M, Mehdizadeh L, Sturrock A (2018). The GP Tests of Competence assessment: Which part best predicts fitness to practise decisions? BMC Medical Education, 18, 2.