Using standardized patients for assessing clinical performance: an overview.

Standardized patients are being used increasingly worldwide to assess the clinical skills and competencies of medical students, residents, and physicians; plans are now underway for the use of standardized patients in licensure and certification examinations. The Morchand Center for Clinical Competence was established at Mount Sinai School of Medicine for the purpose of assessing clinical performance with the use of standardized patients, and currently all students in the eight medical schools in the New York City Consortium are tested at The Morchand Center. This paper presents an overview of standardized-patient assessment, a description of the assessment program at The Morchand Center, and a summary of research on this assessment approach including research at The Morchand Center.