Discuss the role of two or more clinical biases in diagnosis.

Refer to the paper 2 assessment criteria when awarding marks. These can be found under the “Your tests” tab > supplemental materials.

The command term “discuss” requires candidates to offer a considered review of the role of clinical biases in diagnosis.

Examples of clinical bias may include, but are not limited to:

• societal norms
• classification systems (eg Diagnostic Statistical Manual, DSM)
• ethical considerations
• racial/ethnic/cultural/gender considerations and bias
• clinician and patient variables (eg reporting bias, somatization)

Relevant studies may include but are not limited to:

• Hartung and Widiger’s (1998) study of gender differences bias in diagnosis
• Rutjes’s (2005) study about sources of bias and variation in diagnosis
• Elstein’s (1999) study of heuristics and biases
• Kendall and Cooper’s (1971) study of cultural bias in clinical diagnosis
• Cwik et al.’s (2016) study on diagnostic accuracy and gender biases
• Ransohoff and Feinstein’s (1978) study on bias in evaluating the efficacy of diagnostic tests
• Davis-Coelho et al.’s (2000) study on bias in diagnosing obese clients.

If a candidate discusses only one clinical bias in diagnosis, the response should be awarded up to a maximum of [3] for criterion B: knowledge and understanding. All remaining criteria should be awarded marks according to the best fit approach.