Scoring written material from the Mini-Mental State Examination: a comparison of face-to-face, fax and video-linked scoring

We assessed the reliability of scoring written items of the Mini-Mental Sta te Examination (MMSE) using different communication modes: face to face, fa ,: and videoconferencing. A total of 99 MMSEs were recovered from the recor ds of a community mental health team for the elderly. The written parts of the examination (sentence and pentagrams) were scored - in pet-son, using a fared copy or over the video-link-according to published criteria. Relativ e to in-person scoring, sentences could be scored reliably when fared (kapp a = 0.80), as could pentagrams (kappa = 0.71). Sentences could be reliably scored over the videoconferencing link (kappa = 0.70), but pentagrams could not (kappa = 0.47). Caution is required before accepting the results of sc oring such tests over video-links.