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Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Aslak Steinsbekk, NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
- Second opponent: Professor Terese Stenfors, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Espen Dietrichs, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Knut Magne Augestad, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor Pål Gulbrandsen, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo
Summary
Patients struggle to recall medical information given by physicians. The way information is shared does generally not reflect existing knowledge on how to do this in the best possible way. The evidence for the effectiveness of different medical information-giving strategies is inconsistent, and there is a need for better methods when testing them.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, autoimmune neurological disease characterized by unpredictable local inflammation relapses leading to loss of function. To share adequate information about treatment options, risks and side-effects is complex and demanding for both physician and patient.
We performed a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to investigate whether a short training intervention would result in MS-patients recalling more of the treatment information they received. The intervention was a course teaching neurologists communication strategies meant to enhance information-giving.
To measure patient recall, we needed methods to quantify both the amount of information given, and the amount of information a patient remembers. Thus, we developed a reliable counting system of provided and recalled complex information about drugs in unscripted conversation. We also developed methods on how to evaluate whether the physicians used the taught strategies more often after the communication training intervention.
In the RCT, thirty-four patients recently diagnosed with MS were asked to imagine having had disease escalation, causing them to consult with a neurologist about more potent treatment options. The patients were randomized so that half of them each consulted with one of seventeen neurologists before the latter had received training, while the other half consulted with the same neurologists after they had received training.
We found that our training intervention did indeed succeed in changing the physicians’ behaviour so that they provided less units of information after the training. The intervention did however not result in increased patient recall rate.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.