PROFESSIONAL ISSUES

AMA takes aim at skills exam

Although the NBME is not now contemplating such testing for relicensure, physicians have registered their opposition to the idea.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. July 5, 2004.

Chicago -- No clinical skills testing for practicing physicians. That's the verdict from AMA members, who voted at their Annual Meeting in June to oppose any clinical skills test tied to relicensure.

Representatives of the National Board of Medical Examiners testified there were no plans to make the clinical skills assessment exam into a relicensing requirement.

However, now that the test is a component of the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination, AMA members did not want to see it expanded to include practicing physicians.

AMA Trustee Peter W. Carmel, MD, said the NBME and the Federation of State Medical Boards, co-sponsors of the USMLE, spent a great deal of money building the clinical skills exam centers -- sites that U.S. medical students are expected to keep busy the first half of the academic year, leaving them relatively quiet the second half.

"These clinical exam centers are expensive," Dr. Carmel said. "I don't think it's premature to go on the record on this. The Federation of State Medical Boards will be looking to recoup its investment. Rest assured they will want to fill those rooms. They will need to find more customers."

Physicians testified they were not against testing clinical skills in principle but that there is no evidence that this test accurately predicts a physician's clinical competence.

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