Do the Pass/Fail Results on MCCQE Predict Physicians’ Future Performance?

Medical students take different exams in various countries to get the license to work as a physician. These exam results determine their destiny. Therefore, these exams should be as valid or fair as possible. But, how can we find out the signs that show the validity or fairness of an exam?

There are several methods but the most informative one would be comparing their exam results and their success in their professional life as a physician.

Researchers from Canada compared more than three thousand physicians’ performance in their professional life and their exam results. It revealed the evidence that supports or refutes the validity of Canadian national medical licensing exams.

The flamingo has presented the results here: https://youtu.be/a_dFxiwFhks

Canadian national medical licensing exams consist of two parts: MCCQE Part one and MCCQE part two. While part one is a written exam that comprises different types of questions to assess medical knowledge and clinical decision-making skills, part two includes questions based on practice such as OSCE to assess clinical skills, communication, professionalism, and affective skills.

The researchers aimed to find whether the candidates who failed in MCCQE exams in their first attempt are getting more complaints or making more prescribing errors in their professional life as a physician. In short, the question is “Do the pass/fail results predict their future performance?”

I have to provide information to make something more sense for you before jumping into the results. The place where this study has been conducted is known for high rates of opioid overdoses and deaths. Therefore, high rates of benzodiazepine prescriptions have been considered as low performance in this study.

Okay, here are the results.

Among more than three thousand physicians, 87% and 83% of them passed the MCCQE Part one and part two, respectively, on their first attempt.

As the article states, “MCCQE Part I was a significant predictor of the total number of patient complaints”. “Candidates who failed the MCCQE Part I on their first attempt, on average, received 27% more complaints than passing candidates.” Part two pass/fail data was not related to patient complaints.

What about prescribing?

“Candidates who failed the MCCQE Part II on their first attempt, on average, prescribed” the dangerous combinations of opioids “to 30% more patients than passing candidates”.

These results show that “performance on the MCCQE Part I and II is an important predictor of physician performance”. Therefore, we can say that the current results support the validity of the Canadian national medical licensing exam.

If you want to read more, you can find the link to the article in the description of the video: https://youtu.be/a_dFxiwFhks

The article includes more number of interesting results in addition to the presented ones here.

See you and adios para amigos.

And also, don’t forget the flamingo.