[Taking the anamnesis with a questionnaire - safe and effective]

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Clinical Data Management
• Patient-Reported Outcomes

Background:

• Accurate patient anamnesis is critical for effective medical treatment.
• Traditional anamnesis methods often yield data of suboptimal quality.
• The need for reliable patient data acquisition tools is paramount in clinical settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of patient self-administered questionnaires for anamnesis.
• To determine if patient-completed questionnaires improve data acquisition quality compared to traditional methods.

Main Methods:

• A level-IV trauma center conducted a study on 50 consecutive patients.
• Data acquisition utilized a patient questionnaire, subsequently reviewed by a physician.
• Exclusion criteria included age under 18, prior treatment, inter-clinic transfer, or dementia.

Main Results:

• Questionnaires collected more data across all 7 assessed fields (general practitioner, diseases, allergies, tobacco use, medications, operations, family situation).
• Statistically significant improvements in data quantity were observed in 4 of the 7 fields.
• No significant difference (p > 0.05) was noted in the remaining 3 fields, but data collection was still higher.

Conclusions:

• Patient self-administered questionnaires are a viable and effective tool for anamnesis in surgical clinics.
• This method offers a time-efficient approach to enhancing the quality of patient data.
• Implementing questionnaires can streamline the initial patient data collection process.