The Board and Clinical Competence

Excerpt

To the editor: Echoing the concern expressed by Dr. Ureles (Ann Intern Med 77:476, 1972) that the new procedure of the American Board of Internal Medicine for evaluating the clinical competence of candidates does not adequately emphasize the compassion and empathy we should expect from our resident physicians, I would like to relate briefly our recent experience.

During the discussion of our first two candidates, our evaluation committee quickly realized that they wished to judge the residents on more than what had been set forth on the American Board of Internal Medicine forms. The criteria did not seem to reflect