Mahé Emmanuel, Lahfa Morad, Mansouri Samira, Mosharraf-Olmolk Haydeh, Le Rebours Jocelyne, Prud'Homme Jean-François, Fischer Judith
Généthon, 1 bis, rue de l'Internationale, 91000 Evry, France.
Eur J Dermatol. 2002 Jan-Feb;12(1):66-9.
Context. Phenotyping of diseases is essential for genetic studies. In common diseases like psoriasis, the co-operation of family practitioners is helpful to confirm the phenotype of the patients. A genetic study was initiated in France by Généthon in 1996 in order to localise and identify genes for susceptibility to psoriasis. We used an unusual means to confirm psoriasis diagnosis: letters sent to patients' practitioners. Objective. To evaluate the efficiency of this means, and analyse the factors influencing the response rate of patients' physicians to a letter designed to confirm a diagnosis of psoriasis. Design. In the cases of putative psoriasis diagnosis (evaluated by systematic phone calls to the patients by a dermatologist), and with the agreement of the patients, a letter was sent to the patient's referent physician. We evaluated response rate to the letter. Results. 533 letters concerning 762 patients were sent to 456 physicians. The global response rate was 56.5%. The characteristics which modified the response rate were: the quality of the letter sent and some physicians' characteristics: dermatologists versus GPs, hospital versus private practice, and size of the town in which the physician had his practice. Conclusions. The use of letters to physicians as a means of phenotyping patients' diseases is an efficient method of confirming clinical diagnosis and should be used more frequently to confirm clinical diagnosis in large genetic studies. Some parameters such as ease of reply to the letter, whether the physician was a GP or a specialist, and the type of practice increased the response rate.
背景。疾病表型分析对基因研究至关重要。在银屑病等常见疾病中，家庭医生的合作有助于确认患者的表型。1996年，法国的吉内通发起了一项基因研究，旨在定位和识别银屑病易感性基因。我们采用了一种不同寻常的方法来确认银屑病诊断：给患者的医生写信。目的。评估这种方法的有效性，并分析影响患者医生对用于确认银屑病诊断的信件回复率的因素。设计。在疑似银屑病诊断的病例中（由皮肤科医生对患者进行系统电话评估），并在患者同意的情况下，给患者的转诊医生寄一封信。我们评估了信件的回复率。结果。涉及762名患者的533封信被寄给了456名医生。总体回复率为56.5%。影响回复率的特征包括：所寄信件的质量以及一些医生的特征：皮肤科医生与全科医生、医院与私人诊所、医生执业所在城镇的规模。结论。给医生写信作为患者疾病表型分析的一种手段，是确认临床诊断的有效方法，在大型基因研究中应更频繁地用于确认临床诊断。一些参数，如信件回复的难易程度、医生是全科医生还是专科医生以及执业类型，提高了回复率。
