Script questionnaires: their use for assessment of diagnostic knowledge inradiology

The Diagnostic Script Questionnaire (DSQ) is innovative in its format and i ts scoring process. It stems from the hypothetico-deductive reasoning and t he illness script theories. In this exploratory study arguments favouring a progressive construction of illness scripts along with clinical experience were sought and the possible use of the script concept was tested to asses s clinical competence. The research was conducted in radiology. The investi gation used the radiological hyperlucent unilateral hemithorax syndrome as diagnostic challenge. The questionnaire was answered by three groups of par ticipants: nine seasoned radiologists (with at least three years of experie nce), seven radiology residents (from year 1 to year 5), and 14 clerkship s tudents who completed the questionnaire at the end of their radiology rotat ion. The data support the hypothesis of a progressive construction of speci alized memory structures from students to seasoned radiologists. The DSQ wa s able to discriminate among participants according to their expected level of diagnostic clinical competence.