To registrants for the spring 2023 Certification Examination in Family Medicine.

This message includes a recent clarification, reminder, and modification to the simulated office oral (SOO) component of the Certification Examination in Family Medicine.

1. The Board of Examinations and Certification wishes to clarify that for each SOO station you should approach the simulated patient interaction as if it is an office-based visit, despite the encounter occurring virtually. SOOs are designed to assess your skills in providing patient-centred clinical encounters. Although there is likely a significant overlap, SOOs are not assessments of the skills and attributes required for well-run virtual encounters.
2. The Board of Examinations and Certification wishes to remind you that SOO examiners have always been trained to assess for effective integration of the standardized patient’s illness experience. Practically speaking, this means if you present FIFE-related questions (feelings, ideas, functioning, expectations) in a checklist or rote fashion without demonstrating appreciation for the patient’s illness experience, and/or not using active communication skills, it will be considered a non-certificate-level performance. The overall marking scheme of the SOO is unchanged, but the wording format within the problem identification side of the Illness Experience sections has been modified from bullet points to a paragraph.  Expectations for performance remain unchanged.
3. SOO examiners have traditionally provided candidates with a verbal “You have three minutes left” warning along with the visual cue of holding up three fingers. This warning often disrupts the flow of the SOO and has been erroneously interpreted by some as a signal for candidates to stop gathering information and start managing issues.

Given that both candidates and examiners have identical countdown clocks in the yellow bar provided by the software platform, starting in spring 2023 both the verbal and physical three-minutes-left warnings will no longer be offered by the examiner. Should an SOO have to be run where there is no yellow bar countdown clock showing the time remaining in the encounter, the examiner will then offer a three-minute verbal and visual warning.

If you are a resident registered for this examination, all family medicine residency programs have been notified of these changes to ensure any SOO preparations they undertake can be aligned with this information. Should you have any questions related to this message, you can reach us at [email protected].

Please note, you will receive an email within the next four weeks detailing your examination schedule.