Patient attitudes toward granting consent to participate in perioperative randomized clinical trials.

Study Objective: To determine the factors that affect patients' decisions to provide informed consent to participate in perioperative clinical trials.

Design: Survey instrument (questionnaire).

Setting: Urban, tertiary-care, university-affiliated hospital.

Design and reliability of pediatric HealthQuiz: preliminary report of a comprehensive, computerized, self-administered child health assessment.

The time available for pediatric ambulatory visits is rarely sufficient to permit a truly comprehensive health assessment. We hypothesized that a reliable, computerized, self-administered questionnaire could be designed to screen for a full range of pediatric health issues and provide a comprehensive health database for pediatric patients. An age- and gender-specific pediatric questionnaire of 478 questions was formatted to elicit only a "Yes," "No," or "Not Sure" response and structured in a branched, decision-tree format.

Use of electronic mail for postoperative follow-up after ambulatory surgery.

The authors report on a patient who used electronic mail to report satisfactory recovery from ambulatory surgery and anesthesia. The potential benefits and pitfalls of using electronic mail for patient follow-up and communication, as well as research purposes, are reviewed. Potential benefits include cost savings, ease in collecting quality improvement data, and the potential for increased reporting of unpleasant events.

Improving the efficiency of survey research in postoperative patients.

Study Objective: To increase the contact rate with eligible patients for quality assurance/improvement surveys by modifying survey rounds to accommodate the schedules of individual nursing units.

Design: Two-phase, interventional time series study.

Setting: Postoperative inpatients at a university hospital.

Assessment of satisfaction with treatment for chronic pain.

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to assess satisfaction with treatment of chronic pain, evaluate the reliability and validity of this instrument, and then examine predictors and consequences of satisfaction. The Pain Service Satisfaction Test (PSST) is the result of this effort. Fifty adult patients receiving services for chronic pain in a university pain clinic completed the PSST as part of a survey mailed to their homes.