• Thomas Rotthoff, Martin S Ostapczuk, Klaus D Kröncke, Alexander Zimmerhofer, Ulrich Decking, Matthias Schneider, and Stefanie Ritz-Timme.
• Deanery of Study, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany; Department for Endocrinology and Diabetes, University Hospital Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany; rotthoff@med.uni-duesseldorf.de.
• Med Educ Online. 2014 Jan 1;19:25254.

IntroductionCore competencies have progressively gained importance in medical education. In other contexts, especially personnel selection and development, assessment centers (ACs) are used to assess competencies, but there is only a limited number of studies on competency-based ACs in medical education. To the best of our knowledge, the present study provides the first data on the criterion-related validity of a competency-based AC in medical education.MethodsWe developed an AC tailored to measure core competencies relevant to medical education (social-ethical, communicative, self, and teaching) and tested its validity in n=30 first-year medical students using 3- to 4-year follow-up measures such as (a) objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE) on basic clinical skills (n=26), (b) OSCE on communication skills (n=21), and (c) peer feedback (n=18). The AC contained three elements: interview, group discussion, and role play. Additionally, a self-report questionnaire was provided as a basis for the interview.ResultsBaseline AC average score and teaching competency correlated moderately with the communication OSCE average score (r=0.41, p=0.03, and r=0.38, p=0.04, respectively). Social-ethical competency in the AC showed a very strong convergent association with the communication OSCE average score (r=0.60, p<0.01). The AC total score also showed a moderate correlation with the overall peer feedback score provided in Year 4 (r=0.38, p=0.06). In addition, communicative competency correlated strongly with the overall peer feedback (r=0.50, p=0.02). We found predominantly low and insignificant correlations between the AC and the OSCE on basic clinical skills (r=-0.33 to 0.30, all p's>0.05).ConclusionThe results showed that competency-based ACs can be used at a very early stage of medical training to successfully predict future performance in core competencies.

20 keywords...

hide…