Radiology resident selection: Objective Restructured Interview to assess five essential attributes

Like in other medical fields, candidates seeking a career in Radiology requires special skills and aptitudes. Selecting candidates for radiology residency is made difficult by the fact that many of the essential qualities predictive of a good radiology consultant, such as interpersonal skills, recognition of limits, curiosity, conscientiousness, and confidence level, are "non-cognitive", and thus difficult to assess. This paper describes the selection procedure developed by the Department of Radiology of Baylor College of Medicine to measure, as objectively as possible, both the cognitive and non-cognitive qualities of candidates, based on a combination of traditional screening and Objective Structured Interviews. This paper highlights efficacy of this selection procedure that includes both cognitive and non-cognitive factors, that is relevant also to other medical specialities.