ABSTRACT
Evaluation of physicians about their fitness for professional practice also advanced slowly, chiefly through a system of European guilds that controlled professional access, prestige, and compensation. Psychometric science and educational measurement became legitimate academic disciplines in the early twentieth century and established a platform for applied projects in personnel evaluation for the health professions for future decades. Student selection problems will vex health professions educators until an acceptable calculus can be reached that places academic measures and personal qualities in proper balance. New communication technologies have revolutionized health professions education and professional practice in ways that were unknown 30 years ago. Scholarship in psychological science and about human learning, retention, and transfer of training has become increasingly sophisticated and has direct applications to the education of health professionals as individuals and teams. Important conceptual progress has also been made about health professional personnel evaluation.
