A comparative study on medical humanity evaluation in medical licensing examination between China and the United States

Medical licensing examination is a well-accepted form to authenticate physicians' qualification for practicing in most countries. Assessment of medical humanities is of great importance in medical licensing examination. In this study, the medical humanity evaluation, including contents, forms, scores and proportion of the scores of the examinations, in the medical licensing examination and the empirical research examination of segmental physician examination in China and the United States was compared by analyzing literatures and comparative approach, with the clinical examinations as examples. Results showed that contents and proportion of the scores of medical humanities in the two countries were basically the same, but there were fewer stations in current medical licensing examination in China and improvement should be made in the examination form. The feasibility of standard patients in China's medical licensing examination should be further explored, so as to make full use of the guiding role of medical licensing examination in medical education. Key words: Medical licensing examination; Medical humanities; Examination methods