NCT MOBILE Questionnaires

The NCT MOBILE trial was a single center randomized open label clinical trial to evaluate feasibility of patient-physician video consultations in oncological outpatients with solid tumors. After initiation of a cancer specific therapy 66 patients were randomly assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, to receive video consultations via a dedicated smartphone application or in-person consultation at outpatient clinics. Secondary outcomes included time spent by patient and physician, patient satisfaction, and quality of physician-patient relationship as assessed by standardized and standardized validated questionnaires Q1&Q2.

The outcome of the appointment was documented by the treating physician in the case report form and by the patient in questionnaire “Q1”. Patients in the video call group were eligible to schedule further video calls via the mobile phone application. After completion of oncological therapy or 6 months after randomization patients in the video call group were asked to fill out questionnaire “Q2”.

Our interdisciplinary research team (social scientist, medical oncologist, medical ethicist, IT-specialist) developed the questionnaires “Q1” and “Q2” in German language based on a validated German instrument for the patient- physician interaction and self-developed questions adapted from prior assessments of telemedicine outcomes (10.1016/j.eururo.2015.04.002).

Hence, “Q1” consisted of two sections of self-developed questions and one validated instrument. Section 1 (13 items) assessed the general experience, time and money spent for the first video call or in-person appointment, section 2 (7 items) reported the content of appointment (physical and instrumental examinations, prescriptions etc.) using five-point Likert scale to different statements. Section 1&2 also included open questions to which patients could respond in free text. Section 3 (13 items) assessed the physician-patient relationship using the validated questionnaire on quality of physician-patient interaction (QQPPI) in German language (10.1007/s10880-010-9189-0). To calculate the QQPPI score Likert levels of all items were summed per patient with a high score indicating high and a low score indicating low satisfaction of the interaction with the physician, respectively. Part 3 was only calculated for patients who completed all 13 questions because the QQPPI score lacks validation for incomplete questionnaires.

“Q2” assessed the desire to repeat the appointment, technical difficulties, and the number of appointments in total as remembered by the patient at the end of oncological therapy or 6 months after treatment initiation. “Q2” consisted out of 10 self-developed items, of which 5 were open questions to be answered in free-text and 5 were five level Likert scale items.

All questionnaires were sent back to the study lead in a pseudonymized format. In the following we provide all original questionnaires as well as their translations from the German to the English language.