Videoregistrazione di visite mediche per lo studio del rapporto medico-paziente in Medicina Generale. Un’esperienza sperimentale in Italia

The communication and relationship between doctors and patients has been given increased attention in recent years. There are many different methods by which to collect data on doctor-patient communication and relationship: of these, videorecording seems to have the most advantages. The objective of this article is to describe the method we used to make videorecorded consultations in General Medical Pratice in Italy. In particular, the article addresses: 1) the technical feasibility of videorecording consultations; 2) a possible answer to the problem of informed consent both from doctors and from patients. At present, the archives collect 258 videotaped consultations of 14 General Practitioners: about three patients in four (75.9%) did consent to have their consultation recorded; a high range of videorecorded consultations (94.2%) does not present technical problems. In line with published surveys, these recording consultations are an increasingly important method of studying communication and doctor-patient relationship, and of teaching/learning these aspects of medical practice.