Medical problem attributes and information-seeking questions.

This study was designed to explore the relationship between certain attributes of a diagnostic problem and a particular information-seeking question. Using case vignettes under experimental conditions, fifty residents in internal medicine and family practice informed the experimenter of the most important thing they would need to know to make a preliminary diagnosis. These data were classified nominally using a preexisting taxonomy. Significant results indicated that Quantification questions tend to be asked under urgent conditions and Verification questions tend to be asked when the least amount of information is presented. While the taxonomy used to classify the questions did not prove rich enough to describe information needs fully, results did suggest some consistency in question asking, a skill that could be developed further during medical education.