This testing can be used to evaluate aspects of a physician's clinical competence, or as part of a "recovery" process for physicians whose medical licenses have been suspended or revoked.
PMSCO's protocols are designed to meet the needs of hospitals, state or territorial licensing boards, healthcare organizations, and individual physicians. The modalities employed in the assessment process generate pertinent data regarding a physician's clinical competence in a variety of skills, abilities and content areas of medical knowledge. The final assessment report ("Report") is a compilation summarizing the results from each modality. The Report highlights the physician's areas of strength and weakness and can be used to design an appropriate education program, if necessary.
Assessment Modalities Available
Primum® CCS forms are available in:
- generalist 1 ambulatory care
- generalist 2 ambulatory care
- hospitalist / inpatient care
- urgent intervention
- women's health care
- children's health care
- elder care
- cardiovascular care
Transaction Stimulated Recall (TSR) Interview is conducted following the computer case simulations described above. At the completion of the simulations, a record of the participant's actions, the transaction list, is produced. A board-certified physician interviews the participant focusing on selected cases. The participant's actions recorded in the transaction lists are used as the basis for discussion of the cases. Particular attention is directed in the interview to actions that are unusual or out of time or sequence with the variations accepted within the standard practice key. Medical knowledge at the basic science level, clinical reasoning, and flexibility of thinking in managing problems are evaluated.
Medical School Subject examinations are available in the following clinical clerkship designations:
- Internal Medicine
- Family Medicine
- General Surgery
- Obstetrics & Gynecology
- Pediatrics
- Psychiatry
Mechanisms of Disease examination is designed to assess knowledge of underlying basic science principles. Subscores are profiled (for descriptive and educational planning purposes) across:
- behavioral science
- anatomic structures
- pathology & laboratory medicine
- infectious disease & immunology
- pathophysiology
- physiology & metabolism
Modular examinations are also available in the following additional topics:
Interpreting the Medical Literature
Subscores are provided in general principles and patient applications.
Ethics & Communication
Subscores are provided in knowledge of how to say things to patients and families, the patient-physician relationship, and end-of-life care including pain management. Subscores are also provided for systems-based care, which is divided among physician-to-physician interactions and how the physician uses the health care system, including legal process and reporting channels. Other subscores include patient age, location of care, and urgency to intervene; also reacting to and managing the behavior of others, and reacting to belief systems and alternative medicine.
Pharmacotherapeutics with practice-friendly submodules
Submodules are provided for ambulatory, in-patient, women's health, or behavior-related care. Subscores are assigned in selecting the initial drug therapy, adjusting the regimen and patient follow-up, and identifying drug-drug interactions or toxic effects; also included are use of cardiovascular drugs, patient age, location of care, and urgency to intervene.
Women's Health Care forms A and B
Subscores are provided in problems relating to obstetric, gynecologic, medical, and behavioral-care encounters; also included are patient age, location of care, and urgency to intervene. The major clinical tasks assessed include knowledge of mechanisms of disease, diagnosis and diagnostic work-up, and managing therapy and interventions.
Internal Medicine forms Core, Ambulatory, and Geriatrics
Subscores will include the major clinical tasks: mechanisms of disease, diagnosis and diagnostic work-up, and managing therapy and interventions.
Family Medicine forms Core 1, Core 2, and Wellness & Health Maintenance
Subscores will include the major clinical tasks: mechanisms of disease, diagnosis and diagnostic work-up, and managing therapy and interventions.
PMSCO, in collaboration with the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBMEŽ) and the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), offers Post Licensure Assessment System (PLAS) testing for physicians both regionally and nationally. PMSCO utilizes a battery of assessment modalities designed to evaluate aspects of the clinical competence of currently or previously licensed physicians. 
