Call for Applications: New Funding Opportunity to Help Enhance Assessment of Clinical Reasoning

Recent research conducted by NBME confirmed the value educators place on clinical reasoning in the development of future physicians and verified that medical schools remain committed to using OSCEs for its assessment. Clinical reasoning is linked to other important competencies, such as communication skills and physical exams, and relates to the provision of high-quality patient care.

While educators value OSCEs to teach and assess clinical reasoning, respondents to our recent surveys identified several areas for enhancement. To help address these challenges and enable educators to assess and enhance learners’ clinical reasoning development, medical schools will be invited to apply to take part in a new NBME-funded initiative focused on OSCE for Clinical Reasoning.

NBME will support medical school faculty, staff, and students to work alongside each other and NBME staff in a Creative Community—a collective effort to solve the pressing challenges faced by the medical education community today. Given the key areas prioritized by educators in our research, this Creative Community is designed to identify and develop incremental OSCE enhancements with the goal of:

• Enhancing the development, characterization and assessment of learner clinical reasoning skills
• Presenting patient groups without bias or stereotypes
• Minimizing group differences in learner outcomes
• Enabling all institutions to better support learner skill development across the continuum of medical education and training

Interested institutions can apply to be a part of the OSCE for Clinical Reasoning Creative Community by Feb. 28, 2022. In March 2022, NBME will notify the eight selected institutions, which will each receive $150,000 over a two-year time frame for their participation. Additional information, including the full application requirements and submission timeline, is available on our website.

The OSCE for Clinical Reasoning Creative Community is the first program launched from the NBME Assessment Alliance, a new initiative designed to facilitate productive and creative collaborations through a variety of funded programs. Medical educators can look forward to learning more about the Alliance and future opportunities to participate in other Creative Communities throughout 2022 and beyond.