Comparison of perception of health status by physicians, nurses, and patients in the Dual-chamber And VVI Implantable Defibrillator (DAVID) trial.

Previous studies have shown a poor correlation between health and quality-of-life assessments by patients, physicians, and nurses. Some have argued that patients are treated impersonally in clinical trials. Because one would expect that patient care would be compromised if this were the case, we used the Dual-chamber And VVI Implantable Defibrillator (DAVID) clinical trial setting to see if these assertions truly reflect the assessments of quality of life by health care professionals. Physicians, nurses, and patients in the DAVID trial had concordant assessments of the patients' perception of health status. The findings dispel assertions that patient concerns are not reliably assessed.