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Background: Patient safety is a key target in public health, health services and medicine. Communication between all parties involved in gynecology and obstetrics (clinical staff/professionals, expectant mothers/patients and their partners, close relatives or friends providing social support) should be improved to ensure patient safety, including the avoidance of preventable adverse events (pAEs). Therefore, interventions including an app will be developed in this project through a participatory approach integrating two theoretical models. The interventions will be designed to support participants in their communication with each other and to overcome difficulties in everyday hospital life. The aim is to foster effective communication in order to reduce the frequency of pAEs. If communication is improved, clinical staff should show an increase in work satisfaction and patients should show an increase in patient satisfaction. Methods: The study will take place in two maternity clinics in Germany. In line with previous studies of complex interventions, it is divided into three interdependent phases. Each phase provides its own methods and data. Phase 1: Needs assessment and a training for staff (n = 140) tested in a pre-experimental study with a pre/post-design. Phase 2: Assessment of communication training for patients and their social support providers (n = 423) in a randomized controlled study. Phase 3: Assessment of an app supporting the communication between staff, patients, and their social support providers (n = 423) in a case-control study. The primary outcome is improvement of communication competencies. A range of other implementation outcomes will also be assessed (i.e. pAEs, patient/treatment satisfaction, work satisfaction, safety culture, training-related outcomes). Discussion: This is the first large intervention study on communication and patient safety in gynecology and obstetrics integrating two theoretical models that have not been applied to this setting. It is expected that the interventions, including the app, will improve communication practice which is linked to a lower probability of pAEs. The app will offer an effective and inexpensive way to promote effective communication independent of users' motivation. Insights gained from this study can inform other patient safety interventions and health policy developments.

ObjectivesTo identify the associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and the explanatory contribution of disease, patient and healthcare factors among patients with prostate cancer.DesignProspective cohort study.Setting and participantsIn all, 246 patients from 2 hospitals in Hamburg/Germany who underwent radical prostatectomy completed a questionnaire shortly before discharge from hospital and again 6 months later.Outcome measuresHRQOL as assessed by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ C-30 including global quality of life, 5 functional scales and 9 symptom scales/items. Generalised estimating equations were calculated to analyse longitudinal data.ResultsLower SES measured by income, education and occupational status is significantly associated with lower HRQOL 6 months after treatment. This especially holds true for the functional scales. After introducing disease, patient and healthcare factors, associations remain significant in the majority of cases. The explanatory contribution of patient factors such as comorbidity or psychosocial characteristics and of healthcare factors is slightly stronger than that of disease factors.ConclusionsWe identified strong social inequalities in HRQOL among patients with prostate cancer 6 months after surgery, in Germany. The underlying causes could not be sufficiently identified, and further research regarding these associations and their explanatory factors is needed.