Can Clinical Reference Tools Support Medical Students during Hypothesis Generation?.
Hypothesis generation is a fundamental step in diagnostic reasoning that requires specific cognitive support. We hypothesize that existing clinical reference tools are ineffective at supporting hypothesis generation because they can be searched by disease but not by symptoms. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a study with 16 medical students in which they were asked to solve a diagnostically challenging neurological case. Participants first worked on the case without any support. Then they were allowed to consult the clinical reference tools of their choice and revise their initial list of diagnostic hypotheses. Before consultation, none of the participants was able to generate the correct diagnosis. After consultation, 3 participants were able to include the correct diagnosis in their hypothesis list. Of those, only one was able to confirm the correct diagnosis.
