In March 2018, the APPLIED Examination replaced the traditional Standard Oral Examination (SOE) for anesthesiology board certification by the American Board of Anesthesiology. The APPLIED Examination consists of a combination of the SOE and the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) components. OSCEs aim to evaluate the six core competencies and corresponding milestones proposed by the ACGME to assess communication and professionalism, as well as technical skills related to patient care. Candidates are expected to pass both the SOE and OSCE component of the APPLIED Examination to attain board certification. Studies have shown that clinical performance is independently associated with the oral board examination scores;1 it will be interesting to see how the OSCE component correlates with this assessment.
OSCEs were first introduced in the 1970s as an assessment tool in medical education and certification examinations. OSCE’s have been a part of the anesthesiology examination in the U.K. and Israel....
