To the Editor: I support Tattersall and colleagues1 in their attempt to use a wee bit of science and a dose of common sense to improve doctors' letters. While I would love to receive letters based on their proposed "prompt sheet", and should really try much harder myself to follow it, I'd be only too pleased — in the interim, while we await enlightenment — to receive any letter from some of my colleagues with whom I share what is supposed to be "multidisciplinary care" of patients. There is a research project in this for the brave to find out why, too often, communication is not merely inadequate but non-existent.
The full article is accessible to AMA members and paid subscribers. Login to read more or purchase a subscription now.
Please note: institutional and Research4Life access to the MJA is now provided through Wiley Online Library.
- 1. Tattersall MHN, Butow PN, Brown JE, Thompson JF. Improving doctors' letters. Med J Aust 2002; 177: 516-520.<eMJA full text>