Using an objective structured clinical examination to evaluate competency in sport medicine

Area of Science:

• Sport Medicine
• Medical Education
• Clinical Assessment

Background:

• Practicing physicians in sport medicine require standardized competency evaluation.
• The Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine developed a novel examination to address this need.

Purpose of the Study:

• To detail the development, format, administration, and scoring of a new objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) for sport medicine physicians.
• To establish the reliability and validity of the OSCE in assessing sport medicine competency.

Main Methods:

• The OSCE is structured around a sport medicine matrix covering clinical patient care, team/event coverage, medical/legal issues, teaching/administration, and research.
• Candidates are assessed via checklists at various stations, including simulated and real patients, with evaluations by volunteer examiners.
• Scoring utilizes optical sheets for data analysis to determine psychometric properties.

Main Results:

• The OSCE demonstrates high reliability coefficients, consistently scoring 0.8 or greater (0.89-0.97 in 1993).
• Interrater reliability is also strong, ranging from 0.85 to 0.99.
• The examination possesses both face and content validity.

Conclusions:

• The developed OSCE is a reliable and valid tool for evaluating sport medicine physician competency.
• The examination's structure and scoring methods ensure a comprehensive assessment of essential sport medicine skills.