News

Qpercom Observe assesses clinical skills of Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing students through a consecutive series of scenarios performing critical clinical tasks

: NUI Galway spin out, Qpercom has been awarded a national tender in Norway to deliver their advanced assessment solution, Qpercom Observe, used in healthcare education to assess the clinical skills of students. The tender represents all higher education institutions in Norway including the four major universities; University of Oslo, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, University of Tromsø (The Arctic University of Norway) and the University of Bergen.

Established in Galway in 2008, Qpercom supplies advanced assessment solutions to universities worldwide, including the University of Dundee, Karolinska Institute and the National University of Singapore.

The successful outcome of the Norwegian tender comes just after Qpercom’s recent win at the prestigious e-Assessment Awards for Best Use of Summative Assessment for Observe.

Dr Thomas Kropmans, co-founder and CEO of Qpercom, said: “There is no room for error when it comes to making decisions on life and death during high-stake exams and ultimately in clinical practice in Medicine and Health Sciences in Norway or elsewhere in the world. Winning the Norwegian tender just after winning the e-Assessment award re-confirms the value of Observe as an assessment solution globally.”

Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) are used worldwide to assess clinical skills in Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing and other health sciences. Students go through a consecutive series of scenarios performing critical clinical tasks, being observed and marked by an assessor. Compared to training and assessment in Aviation, Medicine and associated sciences have a lot to learn where pass marks vary between 50 to 85%. “

Dr Kropmans states: “I don’t think a pilot would get away with a positive result if only 50% of their flight scenarios were completed successfully. We come across situations where junior doctors walk away with a pass mark of 50%. Standards in Norway are very high and we expect our software and analysis solution will assist in taking the remaining error out of the procedures used.”

The Norwegian tender required a service to automate the administration of practical examinations, a flexible digital process support for exam activities and results, and an integrated, user-friendly and scalable service for all exam user groups.

According to Senior Adviser, Per O Bruvold from University of Bergen, Norway: “The main difference between Qpercom and the other tenderers is Qpercom already have the best service with rich functionality. Qpercom have a nice user-friendly administrative tool for setting up practical exams. Therefore, they fulfilled our first two goals better than the others. Qpercom also have an advantage in terms of the ability to monitor the marking process in real time, allowing a streamlined interaction between markers and administrators, as a simultaneous marking process with dozens of markers required.”

For more information about Qpercom, visit: www.qpercom.com or follow on Twitter @qpercom. 

-Ends-