Referral letters to an obesity unit—relationship between doctor and patient information

Abstract

The contents of 200 letters of referrals from physicians to a clinical obesity unit were compared with patient-reported data and analysed for concordant and discordant information. For major comorbidities (diabetes, hypertension, joint problems) concordant information was found in about 80%, whereas discordant information was found in 46% for smoking, and 66% for medication. Forty-®ve percent of psychological problems, described by patients, were not identi®ed by the referring physician. The role of the referral letter as a tool in medical communication has received little attention and comparative data are generally lacking, but our data suggests that there is room for considerable improvement of the quality of the referral letter.

Obesity and survival after radical prostatectomy: A 10‐year prospective cohort study

“…There is also much evidence to suggest that there is bias in the way physicians diagnose and treat obese patients 35, 36. This includes differences in the way physicians interview and examine patients,37, 38 differences in the perceived priorities of medical problems,39 differences in the way they screen for cancers,40, 41 and differences in how they actually perceive the patient as a person 35, 37, 38. All of these factors could potentially affect whether or not an obese man is screened for prostate cancer.…”

Success rate of Orlistat in primary-care practice is limited by failure to follow prescribing recommendations: the referral letter content vs clinical reality

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