Differences in clinical performance ‘support case for national examination’

New research from University College London (UCL) reveals significant differences in the clinical performance of medical graduates based on which school they attended.

Professor Chris McManus of the UCL Psychology department claims that these findings, published in BMC medicine, support the case for the introduction of a national examination for the licensing of medical staff.

The study assessed the performances of graduates from 19 universities in the UK and sought to find the reasons for differences found between medical schools.

Among other variations, men were found to outperform women on multiple-choice examinations, while women were found to outperform men on the clinically-based PACES tests.

Professor Jane Dacre of the UCL Academic Centre for Medical Education, said: “Although the MRCP (UK) is a widely regarded exam that is carefully designed to assess a wide range of knowledge and skills required by a physician, it is possible that some medical schools teach other important skills that this examination does not assess.”

She called for the routine collection and analysing of performance data of medical graduates and the introduction of a national licensing examination.

In May 2007, the Department of Health announced the launch of a new training and support package for junior doctors.