Dr Julie Pattinson presented at the Ottawa-International Conference on Medical Education (ICME), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; March 10th – 14th 2018. The conference is held biennially and provides a forum for medical and other health care profession educationalists to network and share ideas on all aspects of the assessment of competence in both clinical and non-clinical domains, throughout the continuum of education. There were near 1500 attendees, and hosted plenary sessions, symposia, oral presentations, workshops and poster sessions. Overall it was an educative programme covering all aspects of Health Professions with special emphasis on assessment.
Julie Pattinson of CaHRU gave a presentation in parallel session 13, titled Postgraduate Assessment on Understanding Reasons for Variations by Ethnicity in Attainment in the Performance of General Practitioners in Speciality Training completing the Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners (MRCGP) Applied Knowledge Test; cognitive interview study. The study was conducted in collaboration with Professor Niro Siriwardena, University of Lincoln, Dr Bijoy Sinha, GP Speciality Training Director, Lincolnshire, and Dr Carol Blow, MRCGP clinical lead. Dr Pattinson talked about the differences that exists in 
candidate performance in high stakes medical licensing examinations, specifically the MRCGP AKT, between black and minority ethnic doctors (BME) compared to white British doctors. Grounded theory analysis generated discussions into why differences exist in candidates of different ethnicity highlighted that overseas trained doctors do face additional difficulties answering AKT questions.
The study has provided a basis for developing interventions to reduce differential attainment in UK speciality training for general practice. Overall the conference was interactive and five minute questions were addressed after each presentation.
By Julie Pattinson