STANDARDIZATION AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN TINNITUS

Quality management will become another discipline for intensive care a nd research for the physician. Therefore, the first step in this proce ss will be the need for standardised evaluation criteria and case reco rd forms for documentation, leading to effective quality assessment an d control. Only this approach may promote our attempts to improve the quality of patient care. Tinnitus is, due to the lack of objective mea surable parameters and a missing rational basis of therapy, up to now a ''crux medicorum'' for every involved person. In this paper we repro duce a case record form and a patient's questionnaire for patients suf fering from tinnitus. The presented forms are based on a consensus con ference concerning the evaluation of treatment regimens held at the Fo urth International Tinnitus Seminar in Bordeaux in August 1991. Epidem iological data, collected with this questionnaire, are presented and a nalysed. In conclusion, the presented case record form will lead to a standardised evaluation of symptoms according to tinnitus and improve our understanding of concomitant disturbances in tinnitus sufferers. F urthermore, this form of evaluation and documentation will produce com parable data in different centres allowing a pooling of patients data and history. A comparison of clinical trials in which the items are co llected by the procedure shown here will be facilitated and lead us to a new understanding in determining the causes of the disease and the outcome of different therapeutic regimens.