Background: Communication skills teaching is known to be effective, but students feel there are discrepancies between how communication skills are taught and how they are assessed.
Aims: This study examined the effect of using standard assessment criteria during communication skills teaching on students' performance in an end-of-year summative OSCE.
Method: Students attending their year 3 communication skills teaching were randomised to one of the following three conditions: the assessment criteria were available for reference on the medical school website; or students received the assessment criteria for use in the discussion and feedback; or each student's performance was graded by him- or her-self, his or her peers, the tutor and the actor using the standard assessment criteria.
Background: The aim of this study is to determine whether Gulf war veterans and their partners are at increased risk of adverse reproductive events and whether their children have increased risk of serious health problems. Methods and response to the study are reported here.
Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of reproduction among UK Gulf war veterans, with a comparison cohort of Armed Service personnel who were not deployed to the Gulf.