Where Judgement Fails: Pitfalls in the Selection Process for Medical Personnel

Despite the critical importance of maintaining a valid and transparent selection process that serves the values held by all stakeholders involved in medical education (i.e., students, faculty, society), there continue to be problems with the current state of available admissions protocols. Some problems derive from inertia induced by inaccurate intuitions pertaining to the nature of admissions protocols and the underlying qualities being measured. Others arise from the lack of reliable and valid admissions protocols to capture the non-cognitive qualities of candidates. Still other issues arise from the problem of rumor-based perceptions regarding the qualities for which selection protocols select. Three articles in this issue of Advances in Health Sciences Education present evidence pertaining to the selection of medical personnel. This commentary represents an attempt to bind together these unique perspectives on the admissions process while also casting light on other ways in which human judgment can fail in this domain in the hope that it might help steer decision-makers away from these pitfalls.