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To the Editor: Dr Detmar and colleagues¹ found that a questionnaire that assessed health-related quality of life (HRQL) improved the quality of patient-physician communication about patients' HRQL, and also led to greater satisfaction among both patients and physicians.

These results are not surprising. Since the questionnaire is known to have adequate construct validity,² one would expect it to detect meaningful and clinically relevant issues relating to HRQL. Thus, the study simply showed that physicians in this sample had not been adequately assessing HRQL problems in the course of their standard practice.

For physicians who are not already paying adequate attention to HRQL issues, the crucial question is how to motivate them to use HRQL questionnaires in practice. Any implementation strategy must address local barriers to change, which may relate to physicians, patients, or the environment.³ One promising approach is computer-based administration, scoring, and presentation of HRQL results.⁴

Afschin Gandjour, MD, . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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