MEDICAL PROFESSION Aspiring doctors to test clinical skills

The new test will be costly, and students must travel to test sites.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Starting next year, medical students will have to pass a live-action test of their clinical skills and bedside manner before they become doctors.
During the test, aspiring doctors will examine 10 people trained to act like patients with various fictional ailments. After each 15-minute exam, the students will get 10 minutes to record their observations. Later they must meet with senior physicians to report their findings.
The National Board of Medical Examiners, which designed the exam, said it will measure critical, but often overlooked skills needed to produce an accurate diagnosis, including how well students listen to their patients and how artfully they question them.
"Patients would like to know that their doctors are qualified to talk with them and communicate with them, and none of that is assessed by the [written] cognitive exam," said the board's president, Dr. Donald Melnick.
Previous test stopped
Many medical schools already test students' clinical skills, but this will be the first time a national test has been required of doctors since 1964, when a similar evaluation was abandoned amid concerns about its objectivity.
The new test will be expensive for students; It will cost $975 and students will have to travel to test sites in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles or Houston.
Some groups have objected to the test's costliness and questioned its accuracy. The American Medical Association said clinical skills are already rigorously tested in medical schools. It has asked that the test's implementation be delayed.
High percentage passed
About 86 percent of students who took a field trial of the examination in Philadelphia and Atlanta last year passed, the National Board of Medical Examiners said. Students who fail will be allowed to repeat the exam after 60 days. The 20,000-student class of 2005 will be the first required to take the exam. Most will need to take the test in 2004, Melnick said.
A similar test has been required since 1998 of foreign medical school graduates who wish to work as doctors in the United States.