A Preliminary Investigation of Computerized Patient Management Problems in Relation to Other Examinations

Abstract

In order to provide a better assessment of the performance of medical students, new testing devices have been introduced. One of these devices labelled as the computerized patient management problem has been used by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada as an additional examination in the final certifying process of pediatricians. The present paper uses factor analysis to determine whether computerized patient management problems span the test space spanned by multiple choice examinations and a rating scale. From the analysis it would appear that the computerized problems overlap with the multiple choice examinations to a certain degree and bear no relationship to the rating scale.