MOR: a simulation-based assessment centre for evaluating the personal and interpersonal qualities of medical school candidates Amitai Ziv, 1,2 Orit Rubin, 1,3 Avital Moshinsky, 3 Naomi Gafni, 3 Moshe Kotler, 2 Yaron Dagan, 2 Dov Lichtenberg, 2 Yoseph A Mekori 2 & Moshe Mittelman 2 CONTEXT Medical school admissions traditionally rely heavily on cognitive variables, with non-cognitive measures assessed through interviews only. In recog- nition of the unsatisfactory reliability and validity of traditional interviews, medical schools are increas- ingly exploring alternative approaches that can provide improved measures of candidates’ personal and interpersonal qualities. METHODS An innovative assessment centre (MOR [Hebrew acronym for ‘selection for medicine’]) was designed to measure candidates’ personal and interpersonal attributes. Three assessment tools were developed: behavioural stations, including encounters with simulated patients and group tasks; an autobiographical questionnaire, and a judge- ment and decision-making questionnaire. Candidates were evaluated by trained raters on four qualities: interpersonal communication; ability to handle stress; initiative and responsibility, and self-awareness. RESULTS In the years 2004–05, the 588 medical school candidates with the highest cognitive scores were tested; this resulted in a change of approxi- mately 20% in the cohort of accepted students compared with previous admission criteria. Internal consistency ranged from 0.80 to 0.88; inter-rater reliability ranged from 0.62 to 0.77 for the behavio- ural stations and from 0.72 to 0.95 for the question- naires; test–retest score correlation was 0.7. The correlation between candidates’ MOR scores and cognitive scores approached zero, reflecting the value of MOR in the screening process. Feedback from participants indicated that MOR was perceived as fair and appropriate for medical school screening. DISCUSSION MOR is a reliable tool for measuring non-cognitive attributes in medical school candidates. It has high content and face validity. Furthermore, its implementation conveys the importance of main- taining humanist characteristics in the medical profession to students and faculty staff. KEYWORDS *school admission criteria; *schools, medical; per- sonality evaluation / *methods; interpersonal relations; *education, medical, undergraduate; personality; students, medical / *psychol- ogy; psychometrics. Medical Education 2008: 42: 991–998 doi:10.1111/j.1365-2923.2008.03161.x INTRODUCTION Medical schools bear the responsibility for selecting medical students who demonstrate the personal and cognitive properties that will enable them to become competent and ethically sensitive practitioners. Beyond traditional cognitive screening, most medical schools rely on one interview as the sole means of evaluating candidates’ non-cognitive attributes. 1,2 Although attributes such as communication skills, motivation, integrity, maturity, self-confidence and social awareness are highly valued in this context, 3–5 the literature reflects scepticism regarding the feasi- bility of actually assessing them in an interview. 6,7 admissions 1 Israel Center for Medical Simulation, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel 2 Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel 3 National Institute for Testing and Evaluation, Jerusalem, Israel Correspondence: Amitai Ziv MD, MHA, Deputy Director, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Director, Israel Center for Medical Simulation, Tel-Hashomer 52621, Israel. Tel: 00 972 3 530 5700; Fax: 00 972 3 530 3366; E-mail: zamitai@post.tau.ac.il Moshe Mittelman MD, Chairman, Department of Medicine, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel. Tel: 00 972 3 697 3366; Fax: 00 972 3 697 4855; E-mail: moshemt@tasmc.health.gov.il ª Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2008. MEDICAL EDUCATION 2008; 42: 991–998 991