ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model Reumatol Clin. 2018;xxx(xx):xxx–xxx ww w.reumatologiaclinica.org Original Article Communication Skills in Candidates for Accreditation in Rheumatology Are Correlated With Candidate’s Performance in the Objective Structured Clinical Examination  Virginia Pascual-Ramos, ∗ Diana Elsa Flores-Alvarado, Margarita Portela-Hernández, María del Rocío Maldonado-Velázquez, Luis Manuel Amezcua-Guerra, Judith López-Zepeda, Everardo Álvarez, Nadina Rubio, Olga Vera Lastra, Miguel Ángel Saavedra, César Alejandro Arce-Salinas, A.C. Consejo Mexicano de Reumatología Consejo Mexicano de Reumatología, Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 23 March 2017 Accepted 2 June 2017 Available online xxx Keywords: Communication skills Performance Certification Rheumatology a b s t r a c t Background: The Mexican Accreditation Council for Rheumatology annually certifies trainees in Rheuma- tology using a multiple-choice test and an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). Since 2015, candidate’s communication skills (CS) have been rated by both patients and by physician examiners and correlated with results on the OSCE. This study compared the CS from candidates to annual accreditation in Rheumatology as rated by patients and by physician examiners, and assessed whether these correlated with candidate’s performance in the OSCE. Material and methods: From 2015 to 2017, 8 areas of CS were evaluated using a Likert scale, in each OSCE station that involved a patient. Both patient and physician evaluators were trained annually and their evaluations were performed blindly. The associations were calculated using the Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: In general, candidates were given high CS scores; the scores from patients of the candidate’s CS were better than those of physician examiners; within the majority of the stations, both scores were found to correlate moderately. In addition, the scoring of CS correlated with trainee performance at the corresponding OSCE station. Interestingly, better correlations were found when the skills were rated by the patients compared to physician scores. The average CS score was correlated with the overall OSCE performance for each trainee, but not with the multiple-choice test, except in the 2017 accreditation process, when a weak correlation was found. Conclusions: CS assessed during a national accreditation process correlated with the candidate’s perfor- mance at the station level and with the overall OSCE. © 2017 Elsevier Espa ˜ na, S.L.U. and Sociedad Espa ˜ nola de Reumatolog´ ıa y Colegio Mexicano de Reumatolog´ ıa. All rights reserved. Las habilidades de comunicación de los aspirantes a la certificación en Reumatología se asocian con su desempe ˜ no en el examen clínico objetivo estructurado Palabras clave: Habilidades de comunicación Desempe ˜ no Certificación Reumatología r e s u m e n Introducción: El Consejo Mexicano de Reumatología certifica anualmente reumatólogos mediante una prueba teórica y un examen clínico objetivo estructurado (ECOE). Desde el a˜ no 2015, se evalúan las habilidades de comunicación (HC) de los candidatos. Los objetivos fueron comparar las HC evaluadas por el paciente (HCP) y por el médico (HCM) y correlacionarlas con el desempe ˜ no de los candidatos en el ECOE.  Please cite this article as: Pascual-Ramos V, Flores-Alvarado DE, Portela-Hernández M, Maldonado-Velázquez MR, Amezcua-Guerra LM, López-Zepeda J, et al. Las habil- idades de comunicación de los aspirantes a la certificación en Reumatología se asocian con su desempe ˜ no en el examen clínico objetivo estructurado. Reumatol Clin. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reuma.2017.06.007 ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: virtichu@gmail.com (V. Pascual-Ramos). 2173-5743/© 2017 Elsevier Espa ˜ na, S.L.U. and Sociedad Espa ˜ nola de Reumatolog´ ıa y Colegio Mexicano de Reumatolog´ ıa. All rights reserved. REUMAE-1078; No. of Pages 5