Recently, objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) have been used to assess the clinical skills of medical trainees. We introduced an OSCE station for heart disease to assess clinical competence at the completion of bedside learning. The station involved students performing a 15-minute focused interview and physical examination of a simulated patient with mitral regurgitation and congestive heart failure. The physical examination included listening to a tape recording of a heart murmur. Each student was evaluated by three examiners. The average scores for the interview and physical examination were 22.3±4.0 points (perfect score, 34 points) and 15.2±2.9 points (perfect score, 22 points), respectively. Kappa statistics, which evaluate variability among examiners, revealed moderate to substantial agreement in the results for both the interview and the physical examination. This study suggests that our OSCE station is useful for assessing clinical competence at the end of bedside learning.

Effects of electric acupunctural stimulation though one hand against reactions in the vascular system in nasal mucosa due to changes in physical position were examined in the present study. The results are as followed;
1) That the reactions in the vascular system in nasal mucosa by changes in physical position indicated a rise in the resistance in the nostril which was made the lower side and a drop in the resistance in the nostril which was made the upper side and that this finding had reproducibility.
2) That no rise in the resistance in the nostril was found out even when the nostril treated in advance with adrenalinon its mucosa was made the lower side in the lateral decubitus, but that the resistance in the untreated nostril (with adrenalin) rose up when it was made the lower side.
3) That the electric acupunctural stimulation through one hand caused no adverse effect upon the rise in the resistance in the nostril on the lower sidle in the lateral decubitus, thought it was the side given the stimulation.