TY - JOUR T1 - Patients', relatives' and practitioners' views on pulmonary arterial hypertension JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 40 IS - Suppl 56 SP - P965 AU - Sophie Alami AU - Vincent Cottin AU - Dominique Desjeux AU - Luc Mouthon AU - Serge Poiraudeau AU - Esther Quessette AU - Olivier Sitbon Y1 - 2012/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/P965.abstract N2 - Purpose: To study practitioners', patients', and relatives' views regarding pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and identify potential improvements in medical care strategies.Methods: A qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews involving 16 patients, 4 relatives, and 9 practitioners.Results: Patients, relatives, and physicians have divergent perspectives on PAH. The discrepancies identified concerned their perceptions of the illness and its impact on patients' daily lives. Patients had a broader view, including social, identity, financial, and functional dimensions of PAH impact on their lives, while practitioners' views were more focused on functional aspects. The study also pointed out divergent approaches among physicians to assessing patients' New York Heart Association functional class. The expectations of patients, relatives, and physicians also differed. Patients expected improvement in PAH diagnosis and better coordination between primary care physicians and PAH medical centers. They also valued reduction of side effects, less restrictive medications, and greater consideration of their views in the medical decision making process. Physicians' expectations focused more on identifying and validating therapeutic strategies.Conclusion: Our results suggest several potential improvements in patient management especially in order to obtain more consensual treatment and to achieve a more uniform approach of PAH functional impact assessment process. The findings may also be useful for enhancing therapeutic education for patients and their relatives. Finally, this qualitative database may help develop patient-reported outcome measures with better content validity. ER -