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Through a unique development relationship, NBME will realise its vision for a more efficient and innovative examination content creation and management tool using BTL’s Surpass: The Assessment Platform.

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BTL are delighted to announce that, following a successful Proof of Concept (POC) project, Surpass: The Assessment Platform has been selected to be NBME’s single platform for the creation and management of exam items. BTL’s Surpass platform will enable NBME to realise its objective to streamline and improve the efficiency of assessment operations, while continuing to maintain NBME’s reputation for high standards in medical examination authoring.

NBME, which has headquarters in Pennsylvania, USA, launched a Request for Proposal (RFP) process in March 2016 and, following a rigorous evaluation process, selected Surpass, a leading-edge platform widely used for international high-stakes medical examinations. As a result of this process, it was clear that BTL’s Surpass platform was able to offer a number of key benefits that made Surpass the leader:

  • Advanced integration support with comprehensive APIs and modern integration architecture
  • Features and services that can support NBME’s business requirements
  • An extremely well-designed system with a strong focus on usability
  • A financially independent organisation of a good size and customer base
  • A refreshing approach to reinvestment in Research & Development (R&D)
  • And finally, a competitively priced solution

Surpass will enable external medical item writers and NBME team members to work in a more efficient and collaborative manner. Team members will work within an auditable online environment, developing and quality checking assessment question items with the support of intelligent item management features.

During the procurement process, NBME understood that given the high-stakes nature of its examinations and its use of innovative item types and multiple test delivery modalities and drivers, a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solution would not be able to meet all of its requirements. An experienced assessment technology provider, able to provide custom developments on top of an already established assessment platform, was needed.

“The Surpass platform seems extremely flexible. They have an extensive knowledge base for their end users, and a large number of APIs available. Their approach is that of a trusted collaborator rather than a vendor which I think will be a key success factor to this project.”
Craig Mills, NBME Senior Vice President, Professional Services.

BTL’s ability to provide NBME with a head start, quickly implementing dedicated software development resources, will meet both current and future requirements, helping the organisation to grow and continue to improve healthcare around the world through assessment.


About NBME
The NBME is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that provides high-quality examinations for health professions. Protection of the health of the public through state-of-the-art assessment is the mission of the NBME, along with a major commitment to research and development in evaluation and measurement.
NBME’s examination portfolio includes: The United States Medical Licensing Examination® (USMLE®), International Foundations of Medicine® (IFOM®), and numerous allied health and physician specialty board examinations.
Web: www.nbme.org
Email Submission Form: http://www.nbme.org/contact/
Facebook: @NBME.org


For more information about Surpass and our support of medical based assessment, click here.