CARECOS study: Medical students' empathy as assessed with the CARE measure by examiners versus standardized patients during a formative Objective and Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) station.

Despite acceptable psychometric properties, inter-rater reliability of the CARE measure between examiners and SP was unsatisfactory. The choice of examiner as well as the type of SP seems critical to ensure a fair measure of empathy during OSCEs.