summarize:
In this video, we are going to look at an example of a PROM in practice. Here at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, the Electronic Personal Assessment Questionnaire, or ePAQ, is used to assess pelvic floor symptoms in women. So it is a PROM that's specific to a particular clinical area rather than being generic. Here we talk to Dr. Steve Radley about its development and application. ePAQ is an electronic questionnaire system. It's web-based. It's designed for clinical use. It allows patients to self-complete a comprehensive and detailed assessment of their symptomatology and associated health-related quality of life. It evolved from questionnaires developed as research outcome measures but now has evolved into something that's very much for clinical use, for routine clinical assessment of patients. We issue vouchers, which are sent out to patients, posted or emailed to patients, to allow them to complete the questionnaire at home using the internet. And most of our patients, about 70% of patients, will now do this at home before they come to clinic. And also, post-operatively or post-intervention patients will, again, complete the questionnaire, the majority doing so at home. And the majority of surgical cases will be able to then be seen or assessed in a virtual clinic, the virtual clinic being ePAQ combined with telephone consultation. So I was aware of the value and the power of using questionnaires-- well-validated questionnaires, well-designed questionnaires-- for monitoring outcomes in research. And what I wanted to do was translate that into clinical practice and to use it routinely for all patients coming into this unit. And what we found when we tried to do that on paper was that we generated a lot of paper, and it's a bit of a waste of time, a bit of a waste of paper. We spent a lot of time looking at the results and actually realised that thumbing through a long paper document isn't particularly useful and is not actually feasible in practice. So the other thing you find is when you've got piles of data on paper, at some point in the working week somebody's got to enter these data to a computer. And the "eureka!" moment, really, was when I was sitting there working through a pile of paper, and I thought, why don't we get the patients to enter the data directly into a database? The danger with data that are collected by clinicians and recorded by clinicians in case notes is that it's interpreted. And so it's often very valuable -- and, clearly, talking to doctors and doctors talking to patients is a key element of the clinical assessment process. However, if you've got an objective measure and detailed measure of a patient's symptomatology before you see them, it's recorded independently, then it's a very powerful tool to support and enable a detailed, robust and valid assessment of their symptoms, quality of life, which then can inform clinical practice. In my area of gynaecology, urogynecology, I'm dealing with patients with very sensitive, somewhat taboo conditions; urinary incontinence, prolapse, and associated sexual dysfunction. ePAQ really helps to explore those issues with patients. Quite often, things like sexual dysfunction, urinary incontinence, they're very difficult to talk about. Patients often won't talk to their partners about it, may not be completely open with their GPs and with gynaecologists. So enabling that process and getting a good understanding of intimate issues actually proves very helpful and actually quite often uncovers symptoms and concerns that may not have even been recorded or considered prior to the questionnaire being used. The beauty of it within our practice is that it's actually an integral part of our day-to-day clinical practice. It's not a burden to us to do this, it actually adds value. So we're actually doing something that's previously perceived as being burdensome, i.e. filling in questionnaires and collecting data. But actually, that adds value to the clinical process. So it actually makes that whole process more meaningful and valuable. But actually, having set out to improve the quality of our outcome measures in our practice, what I've actually developed is something that improves communication with my patients. And I think a lot of clinicians who use ePAQ find that actually it improves communication and therefore the clinical care they're able to provide. So the original aim of ePAQ was to improve the quality of data collection for outcomes monitoring. Actually, one of the most valuable aspects of ePAQ use from my perspective is a better understanding of my patients and their conditions and their concerns.
user
Sure, I can summarize the main points. The Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield uses the Electronic Personal Assessment Questionnaire (ePAQ) to assess pelvic floor symptoms in women. The ePAQ is an electronic questionnaire system specifically designed for clinical use and allows patients to self-complete a comprehensive assessment of their symptoms and health-related quality of life. Dr. Steve Radley, who developed the ePAQ, wanted to translate the use of well-validated questionnaires into routine clinical practice. On paper, this caused problems with large amounts of paper generated and excessive time spent looking at the results. This problem was resolved with the ePAQ system, which patients complete at home and record their data electronically. The data recorded is an objective measure of a patient's symptomatology before they are seen by a doctor, providing a detailed and robust assessment that can inform clinical practice. The ePAQ also assists in exploring sensitive issues, such as sexual dysfunction and urinary incontinence, uncovered in patients that may not have been considered or recorded before using the ePAQ. The ePAQ improves communication with patients and adds value to the process, which helps clinicians better understand patients' conditions and concerns. Thus, the original aim of improving the quality of outcome measures has led to better communication and treatment.
assistant
summarize:
In this video, we are going to look at an example of a PROM in practice. Here at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, the Electronic Personal Assessment Questionnaire, or ePAQ, is used to assess pelvic floor symptoms in women. So it is a PROM that's specific to a particular clinical area rather than being generic. Here we talk to Dr. Steve Radley about its development and application. ePAQ is an electronic questionnaire system. It's web-based. It's designed for clinical use. It allows patients to self-complete a comprehensive and detailed assessment of their symptomatology and associated health-related quality of life. It evolved from questionnaires developed as research outcome measures but now has evolved into something that's very much for clinical use, for routine clinical assessment of patients. We issue vouchers, which are sent out to patients, posted or emailed to patients, to allow them to complete the questionnaire at home using the internet. And most of our patients, about 70% of patients, will now do this at home before they come to clinic. And also, post-operatively or post-intervention patients will, again, complete the questionnaire, the majority doing so at home. And the majority of surgical cases will be able to then be seen or assessed in a virtual clinic, the virtual clinic being ePAQ combined with telephone consultation. So I was aware of the value and the power of using questionnaires-- well-validated questionnaires, well-designed questionnaires-- for monitoring outcomes in research. And what I wanted to do was translate that into clinical practice and to use it routinely for all patients coming into this unit. And what we found when we tried to do that on paper was that we generated a lot of paper, and it's a bit of a waste of time, a bit of a waste of paper. We spent a lot of time looking at the results and actually realised that thumbing through a long paper document isn't particularly useful and is not actually feasible in practice. So the other thing you find is when you've got piles of data on paper, at some point in the working week somebody's got to enter these data to a computer. And the "eureka!" moment, really, was when I was sitting there working through a pile of paper, and I thought, why don't we get the patients to enter the data directly into a database? The danger with data that are collected by clinicians and recorded by clinicians in case notes is that it's interpreted. And so it's often very valuable -- and, clearly, talking to doctors and doctors talking to patients is a key element of the clinical assessment process. However, if you've got an objective measure and detailed measure of a patient's symptomatology before you see them, it's recorded independently, then it's a very powerful tool to support and enable a detailed, robust and valid assessment of their symptoms, quality of life, which then can inform clinical practice. In my area of gynaecology, urogynecology, I'm dealing with patients with very sensitive, somewhat taboo conditions; urinary incontinence, prolapse, and associated sexual dysfunction. ePAQ really helps to explore those issues with patients. Quite often, things like sexual dysfunction, urinary incontinence, they're very difficult to talk about. Patients often won't talk to their partners about it, may not be completely open with their GPs and with gynaecologists. So enabling that process and getting a good understanding of intimate issues actually proves very helpful and actually quite often uncovers symptoms and concerns that may not have even been recorded or considered prior to the questionnaire being used. The beauty of it within our practice is that it's actually an integral part of our day-to-day clinical practice. It's not a burden to us to do this, it actually adds value. So we're actually doing something that's previously perceived as being burdensome, i.e. filling in questionnaires and collecting data. But actually, that adds value to the clinical process. So it actually makes that whole process more meaningful and valuable. But actually, having set out to improve the quality of our outcome measures in our practice, what I've actually developed is something that improves communication with my patients. And I think a lot of clinicians who use ePAQ find that actually it improves communication and therefore the clinical care they're able to provide. So the original aim of ePAQ was to improve the quality of data collection for outcomes monitoring. Actually, one of the most valuable aspects of ePAQ use from my perspective is a better understanding of my patients and their conditions and their concerns.
user
The Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield uses an electronic Personal Assessment Questionnaire (ePAQ) to assess pelvic floor symptoms in women, a specific Patient-Reported Outcome Measure (PROM). Dr. Steve Radley developed ePAQ as a web-based, electronic questionnaire for patients to self-complete at home before their clinic visit, with results stored directly in a database. Initially, Dr. Radley aimed to improve data collection for outcomes monitoring in his urogynecology practice, but ePAQ has also significantly improved communication with patients and led to a better understanding of their conditions. About 70% of patients complete the questionnaire at home, and most post-operative assessments can be conducted virtually through ePAQ and telephone consultation. The use of ePAQ allows for objective, detailed, and independent recording of patient symptoms and quality of life, supporting valid clinical assessments, particularly in sensitive areas like sexual dysfunction and urinary incontinence. Overall, ePAQ has proven valuable in enhancing clinical care and communication in Dr. Radley's practice.
assistant