Correlations of clinical assessment tools with written examinations

Despite the goal of medical education, which is 'training to be a primary care physician,' only written examinations (WEs) generally have been used to assess medical student ability. We assessed clinical competence using the CPX (clinical performance examination), PA (portfolio assessment), VMA (video-monitoring assessment), CGD (case group discussion), and PCP (primary clinical practice) during students' clerkships in family medicine and correlated these clinical assessment tools with WEs. Also, we correlated these tools with each other to determine the feasibility of each as a replacement of the other tools.

Thirty-nine fourth year students at University of Ulsan College of Medicine took part in their clerkship in family medicine for 2 weeks during the first session of 2005. They took 1 CPX, 2 VMAs, 6 CGDs, and 2 PCPs and were required to submit their portfolios at the end of the clerkship. We evaluated the correlations of these tools and WEs by the overall scores of each class year and in each subject.

The CPX, VMA, and PCP showed no significant correlation,while PA showed strong correlation with 4th year students' overall WEs. The CGD showed strong correlation with all overall scores and with almost all subjects. In addition, the PA correlated significantly with CGD.

New clinical assessment tools, such as CPX, PA, and VMA, have no significant correlation with WE, even though these tools closely correspond with real clinical practice. Therefore, these tools should be considered as complementary instruments to better assess clinical competence.