Consistency of interrater scoring of student performances of osteopathic manipulative treatment on COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE.

CONTEXT: Assessment of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is included in the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners' Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination-USA Level 2-Performance Evaluation (COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE). The scores earned for OMT should be equivalent among all raters regardless of which technique is scored or which rater is scoring the performance. As a quality assurance measure, selected examination dates and the encounters within the administration of COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE are scored by 2 raters: first by a "live" rater and next by a quality assurance rater. Neither rater knows if he or she is the first or second rater.

OBJECTIVE: To compare candidate's scores recorded for OMT on COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE to determine whether differences exist among raters and techniques scored.

METHODS: The authors evaluated candidate performances that took place from July through November 2012. For each performance, 2 raters scored the same technique or different techniques using the OMT scoring rubric. Discrepancies between scores were compared using t tests. Statistical significance was set at P<.05 for most analyses.

RESULTS: Of the 708 performances, there was no statistically significant difference in scoring whether the OMT raters scored the same technique or different techniques when the students performed more than 1. There were no statistically significant differences between these results and instances when only a single technique was performed and scored.

CONCLUSION: The present study provides reliability evidence for the use of the global OMT scoring tool in the evaluation of OMT in COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE.