The Joint Committee on Higher Medical Training (JCHMT) is piloting knowledge examinations for specialist registrars in five specialties, the largest of which is geriatric medicine.

An examination of 100 ‘best-of-five’ questions, based on the geriatric medicine curriculum, has been generated and peer reviewed by a board of geriatricians drawn from the BGS Education and Training Committee (ETC), the Specialist Advisory Committee (SAC) and the Diploma of Geriatric Medicine (DGM). The examination will take place on the 11th May 2006 in Scotland and Northern Ireland and 18th May in England and Wales (there are good reasons for having 2 dates). Regional ETC chairs have been asked to start making local arrangements and will receive further guidance nearer the time of the exam. All SpRs and LATS will be asked to take part (anonymously, though they will be able to receive their mark if they wish) even if they are in year 1 and have not yet had much training in geriatric medicine. Some consultants will also volunteer to take the test. This will help us to adjust the standard and the pass mark when the exam becomes a requirement in the future. Trainees have been informed by email.

The 3 hour examination will be invigilated and ‘closed book’. It will be on paper for the pilot, though we hope to have an electronic set-up eventually.

This initiative is one of several substantial changes in the way trainees will be assessed so we are keen to get off to a good start. Therefore, it is vital that trainees, and their supervisors, make a big effort to enable as many SpRs and LATs as possible to sit the examination. BGS members will receive feedback about this issue in later issues of the Newsletter.

Further information can be obtained from: Mr Joe Booth (Project Manager, JCHMT) at the Royal College of Physicians (London).

Prof S C Allen
Chair of the Joint Geriatrics Assessment Board