An interventional study of Additional specific letter written to patient in Heart Diseases and Lung Diseases, sponsored by Imperial College London. Completed at 1 site in United Kingdom. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 90 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2019-10-04.
Sponsored by Imperial College London · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research
As part of the NHS plan it has been proposed to extend some consultants' usual practices and to send all patients copies of the letters sent to their general practitioners (GPs) following outpatient consultations. The current Secretary of State for Health has further extended this proposal and suggested that patients should have a specific letter to themselves after a hospital consultation.
The aim of this study is to send patients both a copy of the letter sent to their GPs and a specific letter to themselves and to assess the usefulness and comprehensibility of each.
As part of the NHS plan it has been proposed to extend some consultants' usual practices and to send all patients copies of the letters sent to their general practitioners following outpatient consultations. The current Secretary of State for Health has further extended this proposal and suggested that patients should have a specific letter to themselves after a hospital consultation.
The aim of this study is to send patients both a copy of the letter sent to their GPs and a specific letter to themselves and to assess the usefulness and comprehensibility of each. This study will assess the two styles of letter in Cardiology and Respiratory Outpatient Clinics staffed by 7 consultants and will involve a group of 15-20 patients from each of the clinics, total number approximately 150 patients.
All patients attending the clinics will be given a sheet outlining the study before their consultations. If they are interested in the study, patients will be given a Patient Information Sheet and asked consent to take part. The length of each of the two dictated letters will be recorded. To avoid costs to the NHS, the direct to patient letters will be typed at the study investigators' cost. Two copies of each letter, a short explanatory letter and a questionnaire will be sent to the patient and the patient will be asked to circle points in each of the letters which are unclear and return them to the department. At the end of the study the general practitioners will be contacted and asked their views about the two letters.
3,303 studies on the registry are indexed under Lung Diseases; 355 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 84 is above the median of 72 across 2,118 interventional studies indexed under Lung Diseases.
Browse Lung Diseases studies →Imperial College London is the lead sponsor of 824 studies on the registry; 178 are open to participants now.
Of its 9 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 6 (67%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Exclusion Criteria:
patients were sent a letter especially dictated for them and a copy of the letter written by the hospital consultant to their GP to review
Procedure: Additional specific letter written to patient
Comprehensibility of the two styles of letter
(length, reading ease, Flesch Kincaid Grade, items misunderstood)
Time frame: Baseline
Patient preferences for the letters
Patients indicated a preference for either the GP and patient letter or both
Time frame: baseline
Deficiencies in the patient letter
Deficiencies highlighted by the GP on the patient letter
Time frame: baseline
Plan to share: No
This study is completed, as verified in Oct 2019. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Imperial College London